Plural of cephalon; the head region or head shield of arthropods, especially trilobites and crustaceans.
From Greek kephale meaning 'head.' In zoology, cephala is the standard plural for referring to multiple head structures in arthropods, preserving the classical Greek plural form.
Trilobites had incredible cephala (head shields) with compound eyes, and paleontologists can identify different ancient species just by looking at their head structure—the cephala fossils are literally windows into 500-million-year-old biology!
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