Calymene blumenbachii

Calymene blumenbachii, sometimes erroneously spelled blumenbachi, is a species of trilobite discovered in the limestone quarries of the Wren's Nest in Dudley, England. Nicknamed the Dudley Bug or Dudley Locust[1] by 18th-century quarrymen it became a symbol of the town and featured on the Dudley County Borough Council coat-of-arms. Calymene blumenbachii is commonly found in Silurian rocks (422.5–427.5 million years ago) and is thought to have lived in the shallow waters of the Silurian, in low-energy reefs. This particular species of Calymene (a fairly common genus in the Ordovician-Silurian) is unique to the Wenlock series in England, and comes from the Wenlock Limestone Formation in Much Wenlock and the Wren's Nest in Dudley. These sites seem to yield trilobites more readily than any other areas on the Wenlock Edge, and the rock here is dark grey as opposed to yellowish or whitish as it appears on other parts of the Edge, just a few miles away, in Church Stretton and elsewhere. This suggests local changes in the environment in which the rock was deposited.

"Dudley Bug" redirects here. For the vintage car, see Dudly Bug.

Calymene blumenbachii
Temporal range: Silurian (Wenlock)
Calymene blumenbachii, on display at the Natural History Museum, London
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Arthropoda
Class:
†Trilobita
Order:
†Phacopida
Suborder:
†Calymenina
Family:
†Calymenidae
Genus:
†Calymene
Species:
†C. blumenbachii
Binomial name
Calymene blumenbachii
Brongniart in Desmarest, 1817

References
  1. Alex J. Chestnut. "Using morphometrics, phylogenetic systematics and parsimony analysis to gain insight into the evolutionary affinities of the Calymenidae Trilobita". OhioLINK ETD Center. Retrieved August 21, 2011.


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