Felxicalymene trilobite from the Verulam fm.

On the last trip I took up to the Verulam formation quarries this past fall, I finally found my first enrolled Flexicalymene trilobite. Here it is "in situ" as I found it.

I found the trilobite on the large mounds of crushed rock that had been set aside as a reserve. It's rather remarkable that the fossil survived the crushing process intact. Here is what it looked like when I picked it up.

And here it is once I got it home to be cleaned up. Looking down on the cephalon, essentially the "top" of the specimen.

Turned 90 degrees to look at the "front" of the specimen with the interlocking cephalon and pygidium. You can see a little bit of the cephalon's egde is chipped off. Otherwise the specimen is in great shape.

Thoracic segments on the "bottom of the specimen.

"Back" side of the specimen with more thoracic segments.

A profile view of the specimen. You can see that it has been slightly compressed and is not a truly round shape.

I was at the quarry that day with my friend Kevin who then showed me up by finding an enrolled specimen of a small Isotelus in the same piles. However he hasn't yet found any Monoplacophorans so I can still hold that over his head. *grin* The Verulam formation is middle Ordovician in age (Katian/Mohawkian stage).