Bellacartwrightia sp.

Miss you too! You coming up to visit this year?!

@DevonianDigger I really want to but things have been crazy busy. Just moved to Lehi Utah to be closer to family. Bought a new home, car, and my daughter just turned one. Might have to take a rain check this year and head out next year but I’ve planned a trip to Shark Tooth Hill in California!

Hope everyone in the family is doing well! Can't believe she's 1 already!!!

Beautiful trilobite. 

And the other pieces in the rock make it extra special. 

The horn coral is lovely. 

9 hours ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

Beautiful trilobite. 

And the other pieces in the rock make it extra special. 

The horn coral is lovely. 

Thank you. I’m very fond of it.

On 3/24/2018 at 7:21 PM, Fossil-Hound said:

This trilobite is one of the rarest in the world 

Hey Jason,

Is this true?

I haven't ever heard this before.  

@Fossildude19

It isn't. It is indeed uncommon,, but not rare. The stated ratio I heard is 100 Eldredgeops rana for every 1 Greenops, and 100 Greenops for every Bellacartwrightia. The rarest trilobites at PD would be Pseudodechenella and Dipleura. In terms of global scarcity, there are probably quite a few hundred species that top that list well before a Bella. For instance, there are those, such as Terataspis grandis, for which we only have fragments. 

The AMNH lists a top ten rarest trilobites as the following:

1. Terataspis grandis

2. Laethoprusia n.sp

3. Apianurus sp

4. Neodrepanura premsnili

5. Metopolichas breviceps

6. Bathynotellus sp

7. Dikelocephalus minnesotensis

8. Olenoides skabelundi

9. Uralichas aff. guitierrezi

10. Celmus barrandei

@Fossildude19 @Kane yeah I was a bit excited. It is deemed uncommon. I'll update it. Still this has to be one of my favorite finds.  Pseudodechenella are very rare. Would love to find one of those.

1 hour ago, Fossildude19 said:

 

Hey Jason,

 

Is this true?

I haven't ever heard this before.  

It's one of the rarest at the site. The Dipleura dekayi and Pseudodechanella rowi are rarer. To find one complete is very uncommon, but they are certainly not the rarest in the world.

On a side note, it's worth noting that this is not actually B. whiteleyi. I may have told you that, but I have since learned otherwise. The B. whiteleyi is described from the Wanakah Shale below the Tichenor LS at the site. This guy should technically be listed as Bellacartwrightia sp. from the Windom Shale.

This is a very very nice example, btw.

15 minutes ago, DevonianDigger said:

 

It's one of the rarest at the site. The Dipleura dekayi and Pseudodechanella rowi are rarer. To find one complete is very uncommon, but they are certainly not the rarest in the world.

 

On a side note, it's worth noting that this is not actually B. whiteleyi. I may have told you that, but I have since learned otherwise. The B. whiteleyi is described from the Wanakah Shale below the Tichenor LS at the site. This guy should technically be listed as Bellacartwrightia sp. from the Windom Shale.

 

This is a very very nice example, btw.

Jay thanks for following up on this. What's the full species name for Bellacartwrightia sp.? I'll update it accordingly. I've seen a number of these come out of Penn Dixie and everyone of them has the classification of B. whitelyi. Just to clarify, you're saying that classification should be Bellacartwrightia sp. across the board since this is from the Windom Shale right?

Also you may want to update your entries here to reflect Bellacartwrightia sp.: https://penndixie.org/tag/bellacartwrightia/ I noticed a number of images weren't showing up for me on the site. Not sure if they were deleted. If the images are linked images via the image url tag I would recommend moving them to a more stable location such as Dropdox etc. and hard linking to them directly.

For more information see:

"Bellacartwrightia whiteleyi (Lieberman and Kloc, 1997)

Holotype AMN H 45313 , paratype AMN H 4531 4

Wanakah Member, Hamilton Group, Genesee County. Plate 45 illustrates the paratype. Bellacartwrightia whiteleyi has pygidial lappets, which are covered with small pustules and are semicircular in cross section. The axial lappet is narrow and sharply pointed."

Whiteley, T. E., Kloc, G. J., & Brett, C. E. (2002). Trilobites of New York an illustrated guide. Ithaca: Comstock Pub. Associates.