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trilobite instars


Packy

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I’ve found very small trilobites (well one and pieces of many tiny ones) but I’m not sure if they are “babies”. How doth one tell?

“...whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” ~ Charles Darwin

Happy hunting,

Mason

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1 hour ago, WhodamanHD said:

I’ve found very small trilobites (well one and pieces of many tiny ones) but I’m not sure if they are “babies”. How doth one tell?

A good question! :) 

 

This just barely scratches the surface, but you can see the growth cycle nicely illustrated here in Ludvigsen, Fossils of Ontario: The Trilobites:

trilog.jpeg

...How to Philosophize with a Hammer

 

 

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Also, a good introductory reference on the process can be found in Trilobites by H.B. Whittington (Boydell Press, 1992), in the chapter "Growth and Moulting," pp. 41-52.

...How to Philosophize with a Hammer

 

 

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I believe it was also Harry Whittington who produced a major publication on silicified trilobites from a locality in Virginia.  They were collected from limestone acid residues, and there were large numbers of early instars, beautifully preserved and well illustrated.  I regret that I don't have the reference now, but his publication list is probably available online.  One of the great experts of trilobite taxonomy!

 

Rumi

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5 hours ago, Rumi said:

I believe it was also Harry Whittington who produced a major publication on silicified trilobites from a locality in Virginia.  They were collected from limestone acid residues, and there were large numbers of early instars, beautifully preserved and well illustrated.  I regret that I don't have the reference now, but his publication list is probably available online.  One of the great experts of trilobite taxonomy!

 

 

Actually, Harry Whittington had a few large monographs with silicified early growth stage trilobites from Virginia:

 

Whittington H.B. (1941)
Silicified Trenton trilobites. 

Journal of Paleontology, 15(5):492-522

 

Whittington H.B. (1956)
Silicified Middle Ordovician trilobites: The Odontopleuridae.
Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 114(5):155-289  LINK

 

Whittington H.B. (1959)
Silicified Middle Ordovician trilobites: Remopleurididae, Trinucleidae, Raphiophoridae, Endymioniidae.
Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 121(8):371-496  LINK

 

 

Also, don't forget this important collaboration with William Evitt:

 

Whittington H.B., & Evitt, W.R. (1954)
Silicified Middle Ordovician trilobites.

Geological Society of America, Memoir, 59:1-137

 

"Harry Whittington and Bill became firm friends as a result of their mutual interest in trilobites on this excursion. They did more fieldwork together in the summer of 1946, and this collaboration led to two joint publications (Evitt & Whittington 1953; Whittington & Evitt 1954). Furthermore, Harry Whittington had undertaken research on these silicified trilobites, beginning at around the time Bill began his PhD (Whittington 1941)."

 

Riding, J.B. & Lucas-Clark, J. (2016)
The life and scientific work of William R. Evitt (1923-2009).

Palynology, 40(sup1):2-131  PDF LINK

 

 

Evitt also authored numerous papers with silicified early growth stage trilobites from Virginia:

 

Evitt, W.R. (1950)
Trilobites from the lower Lincolnshire limestone near Strasburg, Shenandoah County, Virginia.
PhD Thesis, The Johns Hopkins University, 392 pp.

 

Evitt, W.R. (1951)

Some Middle Ordovican trilobites of the families Cheiruridae, Harpidae, and Lichidae.

Journal of Paleontology, 25(5):587-616

 

Evitt, W.R. (1961)
Early Ontogeny in the trilobite Family Asaphidae.

Journal of Paleontology, 35(5):986-995

 

Evitt, W.R., & Tripp, R.P. (1977)

Silicified Middle Ordovician trilobites from the families Encrinuridae and Staurocephalidae.

Palaeontographica Abteilung A, 109-174.

 

Tripp, R.P., & Evitt, W.R. (1981)
Silicified Lichidae (Trilobita) from the Middle Ordovician of Virginia. 
Geological Magazine, 118(6):665-677

 

Tripp, R.P., & Evitt, W.R. 1986. 
Silicified trilobites of the Family Asaphidae from the Middle Ordovician of Virginia. 
Palaeontology, 29(4):705-724  PDF LINK

 

Tripp, R. P., Rudkin, D. M., & Evitt, W.R. (1997) 

Silicified trilobites of the genus Sphaerocoryphe from the Middle Ordovician of Virginia.

Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 34(6):770-788

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Thanks all, I will study all the documents. i plan on using acid to look in the local devonion first. Iwill let you all know what I find.  Awesome info. packy

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  • 7 months later...
11 minutes ago, xraymom7 said:

So glad to have found this post. Trying to Id some .5, 1 and 2 mm "things" in my wheeler shale. 

Post pictures in the fossil ID sub forum.

Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys."

Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough."

 

My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection

My favorite thread on TFF.

 

 

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