Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Cryptolithus Glabella

The Kope Formation of  Carroll County, Kentucky produces a lot of Cryptolithus tessellatus fragments.  This Ordovician Period trilobite was thought to be blind.  Today's post is to highlight a part of the trilobite rarely found in this collecting location: the glabella.  The center tear drop shape usually wears away from these probably molts.  This shape can be seen in the first picture in the top left corner centered in the lace collar area.


The green arrows point to possible Cryptolithus glabellas in this rock plate.  The red arrow points to pygidium of maybe a Flexicalymene.
Next picture shows the plate with a ruler to give one an idea of its size.

Thanks to Kenny for letting me use his air abrasion cleaning system to reveal more details of these trilobite fragments.