A new leperditicope from the carbonate-dominated sequence of the Nordporten Member of the Kirtonryggen Formation, Spitsbergen, is the oldest confirmed representative of this group of bivalved arthropods. It occurs at a stratigraphical level low in the Floian Stage of the Early Ordovician, and below rocks bearing graptolites of the <i>Pendeograptus fructicosus</i> Biozone. Its occurrence emphasizes an ‘out of Laurentia’ palaeogeographical origin for leperditicopes, though there are no obvious antecedents in the earlier, Cambrian record of that palaeocontinent.