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Trilobite cemetery?


Péricles

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Hello guys, I've just received two curious rocks that supposedly contains real trilobite fossils, the most curious thing on these rocks is that they look like a trilobite cemetery, there is a lot of trilobite parts. (it comes from China), have you ever seen such specimens? Can you confirm that these rocks contains dozens of different trilobites?

 

Thanks in advance.

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Those look like fragments, primary cephalons of Redlichia chinensis from the Cambrian of China.

They definitely come from multiple different ones.

Here is one that is mostly complete in my collection.

 

IMG_20190903_205728.jpg

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I can't see what's going on exactly in those pictures, but, yes, multiple trilobite bits or many whole specimens in a death assemblage are not uncommon. 

This is where current action moves many corpses together into one place where they are covered with sediment and then preserved.   

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The pygidiums look to be Drepanura sp.

These are available, relatively inexpensively, on auction sites. 

 

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10 minutes ago, Randyw said:

There are multiple trilobite bits in here. The way they are jumbled I suspect it may be a molt plate...

I think this is most likely as the "cheeks" of the top trilos are all missing.

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There is an exposure of a Cambrian age shale in Texas associated with the Llano Uplift (batholith) that is chock full of trilo molt pieces.  This specimen reminds me very much of that.

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59 minutes ago, grandpa said:

There is an exposure of a Cambrian age shale in Texas associated with the Llano Uplift (batholith) that is chock full of trilo molt pieces.  This specimen reminds me very much of that.

I really need to check that out!

Didn't even know Texas had any Cambrian fossils.

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59 minutes ago, Wrangellian said:

Please show pics if you've got any, grandpa.

Sorry, I do not.  For reference, you might be interested in:

          WC Bell, HL Ellinwood - Journal of Paleontology, 1962

           SA Longacre - Memoir (The Paleontological Society), 1970
  • Late Cambrian and Early Ordovician Faunas from the Wilberns Formation of Central Texas
          DON WINSTON and HARRY NICHOLLS
  • The missisquoiid trilobite Parakoldinioidia Endo 1937 in the uppermost Cambrian of Oklahoma and Texas, and its biostratigraphic significance
           STEPHEN R. WESTROP & JONATHAN M. ADRAIN
 
Hope this helps some.
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Well it might if I ever get the means to view the figures in those papers, but thanks anyway.

I wonder why these are not more well-known, and why none of our Texas members have collected there, or have they and nothing could be found or the fossils are not very spectacular?

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We have similar areas here in Ontario that contain hundreds of pieces of Pseudogygites trilobites. They are almost entirely molted parts (exuviae) and, here anyway, are mostly pygidia. To get an idea what likely happened, imagine leaves in a body of water. The wind and current combine to "gather" the leaves into certain areas, while other areas are clear. Anyone who fishes has likely seen this scenario. Trilobite exuviae, having a relatively large surface area and a very light weight, would behave in much the same way as the leaves.

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There's no limit to what you can accomplish when you're supposed to be doing something else

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Just to illustrate Kevin’s example, a typical hash plate from Ottawa with that species:

986CFB82-3781-46FB-8C6E-EC539F3E7DD2.jpeg

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...How to Philosophize with a Hammer

 

 

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