Fossil Selection - CALYMENE

This trilobite is called calymene Blumenbachii. It was collected from Wrens Nest, Dudley in the West Midlands of England (a very famous British fossil locality). At Wrens Nest the Much Wenlock Limestone Formation of the Silurian Period of approximately 423 million years age outcrops.

This specimen is preserved in the limestone. It was once part of a thriving and very diverse coral reef community, living in warm, shallow seas. Calymene & its close relative Flexicalymene are frequently preserved as tightly rolled fossils. The rolling may be either a death position or a defensive one that the animal assumed to protect its soft, vulnerable underside. Calymene is known locally as the Dudley Bug and is present at the centre of the town of Dudley's former Coat of Arms.