Name: Housia sp. (Trilobite)

Age: Upper Cambrian

Size: mm (25.4mm=1 inch): 26 mm

Location: Location: Near McKay Group, Radium, B.C., Canada

Code: HC9

Price: $35.00

This Upper Cambrian trilobite, according to the Canadian collector, came from a remote, very hard-to-access site that is possibly part of the McKay Group, near Radium, B.C. Canada, about 100 miles from the well-known, Lower Cambrian, Eager formation. So far as he knew, no trilobites had previously come from this area more than two years ago. By the Treatise, it appears to belong to the Housiidae family, an Asaphid of the superfamily Dikelocephalacea along with Idahoiidae, Dikelocephalidae, Pterocephalidae, and Andrarinidae. The family Housiidae is placed close to Pterocephaliidae, from which it may have developed. One source claims this trilobite bears close resemblance to Housia canadensis, described by Walcott in 1916. Another source believes that the genal spines are clearly shorter than that of canadensis. The distinguishing feature for identification is the unusual and very conspicuous macropleuron near the pygidium. While specimens of the genus are almost never seen on the market, a number have appeared recently as a collector found a productive layer, and several are affored on this website.

Note the unusual color and type of the preservation, where the bug varies in color from a bluish-gray to off-white, with a distinct translucency that confounds the camera. All the specimens from this locality with extremely hard matrix have a haggard appearance, and the majority have been wrenched and torqued by geological strains in the strata.