Cambrian Trilobites

I like to trade fossils with other collectors around the world. It allows me to expand my collection without spending a lot of money and I get to move some extra material out of the house. As I mentioned in the previous post, I had the pleasure of trading with Dan B. who lives in British Columbia, Canada. He sent me some interesting Trilobites from a Cambrian exposure on Tanglefoot Creek, BC.

As Dan mentioned in his guest post, the Trilobites are preserved in layers of Calcite nodules or as stacks of wafers. In the specimen below you can see the impression of a Trilobite on the top part of a wafer stack. When you turn it on it's side you can see the layers of Calcite. After flipping the piece over you see the bottom layer has an impression as well but it's the inverse of the top impression. It kind of look like two Trilobites died on top of one another in perfect orientation, but this is not the case.






Here are a few of the ID'ed trilobites that Dan sent me. This first picture has three species (from left to right): Hedinaspis canadensis, Wujiajiania sutherlandi, Labiostria westropi




These next two are Wujiajiania sutherlandi as well.



I can see similarities to some of the common trilobites from the House Range in Utah, which is middle Cambrian in age (507-505 Ma), like Asaphiscus (left) and Elrathia (right) below.





While doing research on the site I found an interesting story about one of these Trilobite fossils being found associated with ancient native artifacts at this Living Landscapes page. (scroll down about 3/4 of the way to the Tanglefoot Creek part)