Trilobites are extinct marine arthropods that form the class Trilobita. Trilobites form one of the earliest known groups of arthropods. The first appearance of trilobites in the fossil record defines the base of the Atdabanian stage of the Early Cambrian period and they flourished throughout the lower Paleozoic before slipping into a long decline, when, during the Devonian, all trilobite orders except the Proetida died out. The last trilobites disappeared in the mass extinction at the end of the Permian about 251.9 million years ago. Trilobites were among the most successful of all early animals, existing in oceans for almost 270 million years, with over 22,000 species having been described.
John William Salter was an English naturalist, geologist, and palaeontologist.
The geology of the county of Shropshire, England is very diverse with a large number of periods being represented at outcrop. The bedrock consists principally of sedimentary rocks of Palaeozoic and Mesozoic age, surrounding restricted areas of Precambrian metasedimentary and metavolcanic rocks. The county hosts in its Quaternary deposits and landforms, a significant record of recent glaciation. The exploitation of the Coal Measures and other Carboniferous age strata in the Ironbridge area made it one of the birthplaces of the Industrial Revolution. There is also a large amount of mineral wealth in the county, including lead and baryte. Quarrying is still active, with limestone for cement manufacture and concrete aggregate, sandstone, greywacke and dolerite for road aggregate, and sand and gravel for aggregate and drainage filters. Groundwater is an equally important economic resource.
In geology, the Llandeilo Group is the middle subdivision of the British Ordovician rocks. It was first described and named by Sir Roderick Murchison from the neighborhood of Llandeilo in Carmarthenshire. In the type area it consists of a series of slaty rocks, shales, calcareous flagstones and sandstones; the calcareous middle portion is sometimes termed the Llandeilo limestone; and in the upper portion volcanic rocks are intercalated.
Calymene Brongniart, 1822, is a genus of trilobites in the order Phacopida, suborder Calymenina, that are found throughout North America, North Africa, and Europe in primarily Silurian outcrops. Calymene is closely related to Flexicalymene, and both genera are frequently found enrolled. Calymene trilobites are small, typically 2 cm in length. The cephalon is the widest part of the animal and the thorax usually has 13 segments.
Flexicalymene Shirley, 1936. is a genus of trilobites belonging to the order Phacopida, suborder Calymenina and Family Calymenidae. Flexicalymene specimens can be mistaken for Calymene, Gravicalymene, Diacalymene and a few other Calymenina genera. They are used as an index fossil in the Ordovician. Ohio and North America are particularly known for being rich with Flexicalymene fossils.
Kainops is a genus of trilobites from the family Phacopidae, order Phacopida. It can be distinguished from Paciphacops by the greater number of facets to the eye. The form of the furrow between the palpebral area and the palpebral lobe also distinguishes Kainops from the genera Paciphacops and Viaphacops.
Calymene Brongniart in Desmarest (1817), sometimes erroneously spelled blumenbachi, is a species of trilobite discovered in the limestone quarries of the Wren's Nest in Dudley, England. Nicknamed the Dudley Bug or Dudley Locust by 18th-century quarrymen it became a symbol of the town and featured on the Dudley County Borough Council coat-of-arms. Calymene blumenbachii is commonly found in Silurian rocks and is thought to have lived in the shallow waters of the Silurian, in low-energy reefs. This particular species of Calymene is unique to the Wenlock series in England, and comes from the Wenlock Limestone Formation in Much Wenlock and the Wren's Nest in Dudley. These sites seem to yield trilobites more readily than any other areas on the Wenlock Edge, and the rock here is dark grey as opposed to yellowish or whitish as it appears on other parts of the Edge, just a few miles away, in Church Stretton and elsewhere. This suggests local changes in the environment in which the rock was deposited.
Balizoma is a genus of trilobites from the family Encrinuridae established by David J. Holloway in 1980. It has only been found in rocks of Silurian age. Its type species, B. variolaris, is currently the only named species of the genus, and is found in England. The neotype of B. variolaris was collected from the Much Wenlock Limestone Formation at Dudley, West Midlands. That specimen was first illustrated in Sir Roderick Impey Murchison's classic book, The Silurian System. B. variolaris was the original "strawberry-headed" trilobite of Dudley, so-named because of its nodular glabellar tubercles, and well known to early trilobite collectors. Additional species were originally assigned to Balizoma, but were subsequently placed in other encrinurine genera.
Atractopyge is a genus of trilobites that lived in what would be Asia and Europe from the middle Ordovician to the early Devonian from 472 to 412.3 mya, existing for approximately 59.7 million years.
Selkirkia is a genus of predatory, tubicolous priapulid worms known from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale, Ogygopsis Shale, Puncoviscana Formation and the Early Ordovician Fezouata Formation. 142 specimens of Selkirkia are known from the Greater Phyllopod bed, where they comprise 0.27% of the community. In the Burgess Shale, 20% of the tapering, organic-walled tubes are preserved with the worm inside them, whereas the other 80% are empty. Whilst alive, the tubes were probably vertical, whereas trilobite-occupied tubes are horizontal.
Sometimes referred to in literature as 'Bwlch y Gaseg' and in very close proximity to the area named as such on OS Map 1888-1913, the Cynwyd Forest Quarry is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) located aside a track within the Cynwyd Forest near Corwen, Denbighshire, North Wales. It was described by Rushton et al. (2000) and exposes Late Ordovician micaceous siltstones and mudstones of the Dolhir Formation which yields a rich shelly (brachiopod) fauna. Trilobites are represented by several genera although the fauna is dominated by Gravicalymene arcuata Price, 1982. Bivalves, bryozoans and various Echinodermata are also present. Examples of most of the fossils listed below are illustrated and briefly described in "Fossils of the Upper Ordovician" by Harper and Owen (Eds.).
The Devonian Jeffersonville Limestone is a mapped bedrock unit in Indiana and Kentucky. It is highly fossiliferous. The Vernon Fork Member contains Volcanic ash associated with the Tioga Bentonites.
Trinodus is a very small to small blind trilobite, a well known group of extinct marine arthropods, which lived during the Ordovician, in what are now the Yukon Territories, Virginia, Italy, Czech Republic, Poland, Denmark, Sweden, Svalbard, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Iran, Kazakhstan and China. It is one of the last of the Agnostida order to survive.
Ogygiocarella Brongniart, 1822, is a genus of asaphid trilobites. It occurred during the Middle Ordovician.
The Dolhir Formation is a geologic formation in Wales. It preserves fossils dating back to the Ordovician period.
Bailiaspis Resser, 1936, is a Middle Cambrian (Miaolingian) trilobite genus belonging to the Family Conocoryphidae Angelin, 1854. Within the Acado-Baltic region, the genus ranges from Wuliuan into Guzhangian age strata.
Coalbrookdale Formation, earlier known as Wenlock Shale or Wenlock Shale Formation and also referred to as Herefordshire Lagerstätte in palaeontology, is a fossil-rich deposit (Konservat-Lagerstätte) in Powys and Herefordshire at the England–Wales border in UK. It belongs to the Wenlock Series of the Silurian Period within the Homerian Age. It is known for its well-preserved fossils of various invertebrate animals many of which are in their three-dimensional structures. Some of the fossils are regarded as earliest evidences and evolutionary origin of some of the major groups of modern animals.
Palaeontology in Wales is palaeontological research occurring in Wales.
Dudleyaspis is an extinct genus of Lower to Middle Devonian odontopleurid trilobites that lived in a shallow sea that lay between Euramerica and Gondwana. It was named in 1949 by Prantl & Pribyl.
