Triarthrus becki


Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Arthropoda
Class
Trilobita
Order
Olenida
Superfamily
Olenoidea
Family
Olenidae
Binomial Name
Triarthrus becki
Formation
Utica Shale
Locale
Little Falls, New York
Age
Late Ordovician
Notes

This is a good split, although part of the shell on the right side of the head got left on the counterpart, which I also have. The axial nodes are well preserved. As a black trilobite on a black rock this doesn't make my most displayable trilobite.

Is this a distinct species from Triarthrus eatoni? According to paleontologists John L. Cisne. Joane Molenock, and Bruce D. Rabe, the answer is "no". In Evolution in a cline: the trilobite Triarthrus along an Ordovician depth gradient they write: Head proportions in the trilobite Triarthrus change by small but significant amounts with both lime and environment along a ‘fossil’ depth gradient in the Trenton Group of central New York. The putative zone species T. becki (Denmarkian Stage) and T. eatoni (post-Denmarkian; =T. becki, new synonymy) intermingle throughout the roughly two million year long sequence studied. The two represent extreme morphs in a graded spatio-temporal cline, not distinct species.

So you may want to see this page as merely giving the conventional carapace only view of Triarthrus eatoni, showing the axial nodes very nicely.


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Triarthrus becki


Picture of Triarthrus becki
Picture of Triarthrus becki

Triarthrus becki plate


Picture of Triarthrus becki plate
Picture of Triarthrus becki plate