Aayemenaytcheia paragranulata is a Middle Devonian proetid trilobite.
The genus name is the vocalisation of the acronym AMNH of the American Museum of Natural History and the suffix -ia (Aay-Em-En-Aytche-ia), as gratitude for funding Lieberman's research.The species epithet paragranulata refers to the fact that the species was first regarded as closely related to Dechenella granulata.[1]
A. paragranulata has been collected from the Devonian of Canada (Emsian and Eifelian, Blue Fjord Formation, Bathurst Island, Nunavut).[1]
Aayemenaytcheia paragranulata was originally described as a species belonging to the genus Dechenella. Recent cladistic analysis however makes it likely the species is in fact the earliest branch of a clade that further includes Lacunoporaspis, Dechenella, Schizoproetus and Schizoproetoides. So in order to retain the monophyly of the genus Dechenella, a new genus was erected for D. paragranulata.[1]