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Hi everyone, this is a trilobite I bought when I was like 5 at the Natural History Museum in Washington, DC. Unfortunately, over the past decade I've lost the ID tag for it. I think it's a flexicalymene or calymene, but I'd really appreciate any possible guesses!

A year or so ago a friend of mine was moving to a new job, and he decided to downsize his collection and concentrate on his real interest, elasmobranchs (sharks/rays) and fish. As a result I inherited a number of fossils, including a Moroccan trilobite. It had a few cracks that had been crudely "repaired" with clay. Recently I decided to "restore" it, which means I removed the clay (toothbrush prep) and returned it to it's unaltered state. I initially thought it was one of the common Flexicalymene ouzregui but as I cleaned it up it looked a little bit different from that species, and also a bit familiar. I pulled up a paper (Destombes 1966) that @piranha posted here last year, and discovered that I actually had a Colpocoryphe grandis (Snajdr), a species I did not previously have in my collection. It is a decent size, 81 mm long by 41 mm wide across the free cheeks. Overall this species is similar to Flexicalymene ouzregui. The easiest to see character is the lack of pleural segments on the pygidium. The cephalon is also subtly different. Here is the figure from Destombes (1966) of Colpocoryphe grandis for comparison to my specimen:

Hi there! I recently purchased an awesome Flexicalymene trilobite. After unwrapping it, there was a bonus surprise fossil! I didn't think too much of it prior to buying, and just thought it was a matrix blob from the seller's photo. But I'm pleasantly surprised! My first thought was that it was a piece of coral or some type of ocean plant. The info card that came with the trilobite states that it was found in Mt Orab, Ohio, USA in the Arnheim formation. Wondering if any of you cool cats would be able to identify what it is? I'm just curious and interested in learning more

Hey folks, I’m going to keep it short and sweet. I turned 31 yesterday (May 26th) so I had the day off from work. Still feeling inspired by my Lorraine group adventures I went out exploring again. I did lots of hiking...turns out so much so that I hiked out of the Whetstone Formation and into the Pulaski Shales. The Pulaski formation is just shales and sandstones (50/50 split pretty much) alternating....the upper whetstone grades into the Pulaski conformably so there isn’t an abrupt change. It just starts to have many more sandstone beds inter layered. So basically I thought I was in the upper whetstone and stumbled on a complete Flexicalymene granulosa just sitting in the stream already split open. I decided to stay close by and split a few pieces of shale and found 2 more!!! What!?! I thought I was in the Whetstone Formation and didn’t realize I was probably in the Pulaski shales till I got home. I had no clue the flexis could be found like that....or at all! Seems like if you find the right shales your gonna find one. I didn’t look through much shale at all so they seemed “somewhat” common. the Lorraine group gets weirder and weirder I tell you!! here are a couple photos This was the first one I found just sitting open already split. A nice prep would fix this guy up. The counterpart has the rest of the trilobite. This is the last one I found. Looks to be all there just mostly covered in shale. Saving best for last lol. Check this little guy out! This was the best Flexi. Scale in cm. It should come out great with a little air abrasion. Very lucky find for sure. Now I’m thinking I need to go back to the pulaski shale location I found last year! A happy accident (Hiked too far) on my birthday turned into a rare find! I have middle Ordovician calymenids now I have a late Ordovician example There is a Flexicalymene granulosa for sale on a well known fossil website that is labeled from the Pulaski shale so I made the connection there. If you google Flexicalymene granulosa it’s easy to find the listing. Flexicalymene granulosa isn’t even in the trilobites of New York book. To me that makes this find that much more special....totally under the radar and a total surprise to me. Thanks for reading Al

I haven't seen hardly any Ordivician-related posts for a while so here's my input. I was out collecting yesterday off Interstate 75. Nothing all that good had occurred until I found this flexy... Nearly 5 years ago I found the chunk of rock (in the middle of my hand) that appeared to contain some amount of trilobite I never expected much so it was ignored until this past Feb when I finally prepped it. I was happily surprised at what finally appeared. It has a few blemishes and is nearly 100% complete.

I spent yesterday trying out a location along the southwest corner of Tug Hill Plateau in Oswego County NY. There is a road cut exposure that is very weathered. Lots of crumbly mud- and silt-stone, interspersed with sandstone. I couldn’t get very low on the exposure because the river that the highway crosses was high, no shelf or margin of error to climb down. On the Rockd app, this is supposed to be late Ordovician Pulaski and Whetstone gulf, and I wanted to find trilobites. I think I found one fragile flexicalymene, Prasopora (chocolate drop bryozoan), and a big orthocone. Very few trilobite remains in any layer I examined. I hope to return this summer when the water of the river is low...

Hi there, guys. So, I recently bought a lot of trilobites from a Morrocan seller. I asked here in the forum for an ID and it turned out one of the trilobites came with wrong determination, so I'm adding pictures of the other specimens hoping you guys can help me get to genus at least. They were all sold as Phacops, but of course, the seller does not have knowledge enough to ID them, and neither do I (probably, even less, actually...). I'll add the pictures below for each specimen. First two pieces I believe it's Flexicalymene sp. Thanks in advance, Juliano

Day Three ; Locality One (Or Eight if you include Days One and Two) Ait Benhaddou, Morocco. 21st February 2019 We spent the second night in Ouarzazate, where the biggest film studios in Africa can be found and many famous films have been shot. In the morning we went briefly to the Atlas Studios where Anouar took some photos of the exterior for his blog, but non of us actually wanted to go in, so we headed for the kasbah of Ait Benhaddou. The road going south from Ouarzazate, at Ait Saoun, just before one reaches Agdz is a fossilized and genuine stromatolite reef, but it was out of our way on this occasion, so that's one for another day, but here's a photo courtesy of the Universities Space Research Program who test out Moon Buggies, Mars Rovers and stuff there. Just before we reached Ait Benhaddou, we stopped off at a viewpoint, I wanted to look at the rocks and hillside as fossils can be found in this area. I can't remember what they were as i didn't find any, but one of the hills next to the kasbah is quite famous, so i'm told. You can see the kasbah in the distance here and i think the hill just to the right of it is the fossil location. Hunting around, I did find lots of pieces of what I think is a porphyritic gabbro. Nice phenocrysts!

Hey Gang, Need some help. I've got a couple trilobites and I realize I dont have confirmed ID/provenance. They were labeled as being from Morocco. 1)Maybe a Flexicalymene? 2) Not sure what this one might be and it looks like much different matrix and preservation than I've seen for Morocco? Maybe something like a Phacopsid? Thanks for the help in advance. Regards, Chris

I was given these two trilobites from my uncle in Michigan, and he found them locally in Ohio about 11 years ago. I was thinking they are flexicalymene but I am not certain since I am new to identification. Thanks in advance! The smaller one is almost exactly 0.5" long (back of matrix shown), the wider one almost 1.5".

On Sunday, my family and I decided to head out for a fossil excursion to spend out day.@Uncle Siphuncle pointed out a good fossil site for me to find trilobites at a road cut in St. Leon, Indiana. Thanks a ton!! Unfortunately, as it had rained for quite a while that day, we had to wait until well after noon to reassure ourselves that we would not need to fossil hunt in the rain. Luckily, this also meant we got fresh picks before the other collectors! Here is the haul from the day: (I hope to bring back more over the course of the week!) Top to bottom: (1) Random pieces of the trilobite Isotelus (sp.). (2) The largest piece of trilobite that was found that day at the site. Although the piece is large, this is just a tiny, tiny fragment of the real trilobite! It is included at the bottom of image #1. (3) The best find of the day. It is a piece of the rear-half of the trilobite Flexicalymene (sp.). I do not know the specific specie, but the most abundant trilobite found at the site is Flexicalymene meeki, so it is safe to assume that the trilobite is F. meeki. After staring at the trilobite piece for some time, I extrapolate that it is approximately ~2/5ths of the trilobite which it once was. It is indeed very small! (4) Fossilized gastropods: (5) Fragments of orthoceras. These tend to be larger! ( (6) A handful of associated crinoid stem segments. The 2.4 cm one is quite long for a piece found detached from a matrix. I like it! —————————————— Overall, I think that our trip to the site had not met its maximum potential. We thoroughly examined every foot of ground that we covered- but this was only a short strip of land roughly 20 * 60 feet. Time was not available for a longer hunt. I estimate that we covered less than 5% (!) of the total fossiliferous area available to us that day— next time, I hope to find more than just ~1/3rd of a trilobite! -FS

I try to find my own rather than buy fossils but I had to have this one..... An enrolled Flexicalymene from a local quarry in Ontario that was too nice to pass up. Roughly 0.75" across.

My story will be a bit(could be too much) long, so I put this report separately from @Kane's report. I'm not sure I can do this or not 'cause this is my first time to write same topic from others'. If I should not do this, I apologize administrator for making bothersome Before I start my story, I convey my profound and huge gratitude to @crinus for taking me quarries(these travels were my very first visiting to not only quarries, but also Ontario's fossil site!) and giving a lot of nice fossils to me what he found, and to @Northern Sharks for giving a nice specimen to me what he found as well from Brechin quarry and organizing Bowmanville journey(I didn't know that until seeing from @Kane's report. I'm not sure that you set the all plans), and to @Malcolmt for giving a complete crinoid to me, which is my first complete crinoid possessing arms and stems, and finally to everyone that I've met on this travel for welcoming me *Plus - My report will be incomplete 'cause I don't know that much about Ontario's geological information and some species' scientific names. So, I'll appreciate greatly if you guys tell me about right information and help me to correct it I revised this post a loooot of times 'cause I realized that it was not report, but a proper diary(Too Much Information.. and still, it's like a diary..) Well.. Now then, I'll begin my long story with some pictures though I couldn't make to take that many pictures of quarries and people. As for the Brechin quarry, I forgot to take my phone and there was no time to take DSLR out from my bag. And as for the Bowmanville quarry, I was so concentrating to find fossils that I forgot to take pictures *Date : Oct.21&22.2017 *Location : Brechin quarry & Bowmanville quarry *Records of formation : Brechin quarry - D -----> Upper Verulam Formation(There was a "cluster" of fauna that I think it's different from below one. Color was bright grey and somewhat yellowish) DD -----> Middle Verulam Formation(Bluish and grey rocks with vurnerable condition) DDD -----> Lower Verulam Formation(Brown and grey rocks) DDDD -----> Upper Bobcaygeon Formation(Alternates between sublithogenic and medium calcarenitic limestone, but also includes some brown lithographic limestone and bluish fine-grained limestone in minor thicknesses)[*] [Buried under the ground] Middle Bobcaygeon Formation(Grey and brown, very fine grained to sublithogenic, sparsely fossiliferous limestone, with some fine-grained limestone in the upper part)[*] [Buried under the ground] Lower Bobcaygeon Formation(Brownish grey, fine- and medium-grained limestone)[*] (Reference - [*] Bobcaygeon formation - Weblex Canada. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://weblex.nrcan.gc.ca/html/001000/GSCC00053001579.html @Northern Sharks informed me! Thank you! ) Bowmanville quarry - D -----> Blue Mountain Formation (I couldn't get there.) DD Upper Lindsay formation DDD Level 2 (?) DDDD Level 3(?) - Lower Lindsay formation (Below as well. The quarry was so biiiiiig!!) - - *Geological Age - Middle Ordovician These all rocks are what I took. Maybe I took a lot of fossils even if it is only a small part of trilobites. I just so excited that I found Ontario's trilobites directly, not through internet store or pictures! Well.. Now I'm worried the weight.. Could I take these whole fossils?... I should have considered about it, not just collect unnecessary things by my instinct. It was not a clever move.. That crinoid(at 11 O'clock-wise) is not what I found these quarries. I found it from Scarbourough bluffers park before. To begin, the beginning of the day(Oct.21) I've met @crinus first at the very early morning of the day(For me. 'cause I'm not the early bird type). Actually, we met from Ebay. I won his two auction and I asked him that would you wait for me until I get to Canada in order to reduce shipping cost. Then, he offered me to go to quarries with him! Anyway, we arrived there around at 8:30 AM and there were 4 or more people had already arrived. I've met @Malcolmt and two other people(Sorry, I can't remember the name. My poor memory..) on near the greenish and bluish pond in the quarry. After handshaking, @crinus and I went to the piles of rocks, which is near the pond. We climbed up the piles of rocks and met @Northern Sharks on there. He found one complete Calyptaulax sp. and dropped it from his hand while we were greeting each other(yet, fortunately, the trilobite was alive with small crack on the pygidium(if my memory is correct)) After the greeting, @crinus and @Northern Sharks went to another place and I remained there, which was that @Northern Sharks found a trilobite, and looked for trilobites with hammering big rocks. I found a horn coral, which is Lambeophyllum profundum Conrad, 1843, the cephalon part of Ceraurus sp. , and a loooot of brachiopods and so on It came from lower Verulam formation. This one is Lambeophyllum profundum Conrad, 1843( @Northern Sharks and @FossilDAWG informed me! Thank you! ) Ceraurus globulobatus? I don't know the exact name of this specimen.. This one maybe came from the middle Verulam formation because of its color. Though I found this from the lower Verulam formation area.

A nice Dictyonema flabelliforme dendroid graptolite from Oslo Fields in Norway. It's Tremadoc, Lower Ordovician in age and is thus maybe around 480 mya. Another angle :

Hey, there, a while ago my dad bought a trilobite (flexicalymene?) from a trip, I recently found it in my pond and I washed away the algae and dirt and stuff, however the fossil (if real) seems really fragile, it broke into numerous pieces while cleaning. I noticed that there are two color layers in the cross section of the trilobite, and some of the pieces seem like they are just carved out of a rock, no bone structure or anything to separate itself from the rock. The only detail that is convincing me that this might be a real is that there are numerous little shell structures beneath the trilobite (see pictures). So please help me identify the type of trilobite and most importantly if it is real. Thanks in advance. (sorry for bad english) Sorry for tiny images, the forum won't let me upload more than 3 MB

Hi fellow Fossil Forum members. I have been collecting Vermont trilobites in a location for awhile and am wondering if both of these trilobites are Flexicalymene senaria or do I have two different species. I keep getting conflicting opinions from my fellow collectors. I collected both trilobites from the same area. When I prepped them I thought that were some significant differences in the cephalons. Any thoughts would be appreciated.