Bathynotus
elongatus
Trilobite
Order Redlichiida, Family Chenkouaspidae
Geological
Time: Early Middle Cambrian
Size (25.4
mm = 1 inch): Two at 6 mm across by 9 mm long one 4 mm across by 6
mm long on a 70 mm by 35 mm matrix
Fossil Site:
Kaili Formation, Maiobanpo Section, Taijiang County, Kaili, Guizhou Province,
China
Fossil Code:
KB131
Price: Sold
Description:
The Kaili Biota of Guiznou Province China, like the fantastic
Chengjiang and Burgess Shale Fauna, preserve some of the earliest
radiations of complex life known on the planet. The formation
is some 220 m in thickness and spans the Late Early to Early
Middle Cambrian. As such it is intermediate in age between the
Changjiang and Burgess Shale Faunas. Representatives of some
110 genera are known, representing 11 phyla. The Kaili Biota
includes both soft-bodied and skeletonized animals, and is dominated
by trilobites, with eocinoids as the second most common fossil.
It shares roughly 30 genera in common with Chengjiang and nearly
40 with the Burgess Shale. The presence of Burgess Shale–like
fauna over a large part of southwestern China shows that the
faunal community was quite cosmopolitan in nature, indicating
that preservation was more of a factor in finding these concentrations
of animals than was the existence of isolated communities suitable
for harboring these myriad life forms.
This
trilobite is Bathynotus elongatus. Bathynotus was the patronymic
genus of the Bathynotidae, a family whose ordinal status was
in dispute. The members of the genus have recently been assigned
to the Chengkouaspidae, a family within the Redlichiida. Trilobites
from this timeframe were members of the Redlichiida, Ptychopariida,
Corynexochida, and the Agnostida, with the balance of the orders
appearing later in time. Members of this faunal assemblage are
very rarely offered for sale; I have never seen a multiple of
THREE specimens ever before. There is even a partial of another
trilobite present as well, making quite an assemblage on such
a small piece of real estate.
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