Trilobites of the
Walcott-Rust Quarry last revised 06 August 2009 by S.M. Gon IIILocality: Trenton Falls, HerkimerCounty,
central New York, USA Stratigraphy: Spillway Member, Rust Formation, Trenton Group Age: Late Ordovician (Shermanian [~Sandbian]), ca 455(?) Mya
(left) Original Walcott-Rust Quarry site
(right) Quarry excavations
During the Late Ordovician, North America (Laurentia) was tropical, with NY about 20
deg S of the paleoequator.
Location of the Walcott-Rust locality
today
Location in the Late Ordovician
What is today referred to as the Walcott-Rust Quarry was discovered
in 1870 by Charles Doolittle Walcott (then 20 years of age) years before his
discovery of the more famous Burgess Shale in British
Columbia, Canada.
Because one layer of the locality yields specimens preserved with calcified
appendages, they provided the first documentation of the biramous limbs of
trilobites (Walcott 1876). Located near the farm of William Rust, Walcott and
Rust collected from the quarry and sold their collections to the Museum of Comparative
Zoology at HarvardUniversity. There, museum director Louis
Agassiz convinced Walcott to pursue paleontology as a career. The locality is famous for bearing well-preserved, fully
articulated fossils from the lower third of the formation.Found here are
three species of the more common trilobites of the Trenton Group: (Ceraurus
pleurexanthemus, Flexicalymene senaria, and Isotelus gigas) but also fourteen other
species of rare and uncommon trilobites. Trilobites with preserved appendages
from the locality include Ceraurus pleurexanthemus and Flexicalymene senaria.
As in other konservat-lagerstatten,
there is evidence of rapid burial of living communities, entombing
and preserving them. The Walcott-Rust locality has been described
as the single richest and most varied source of
trilobites in the New York Trenton Group limestones, if not the entire
suite of
New York Paleozoic rocks. This richness, coupled with the extraordinary
preservation of trilobite appendages qualifies the locality as an
exceptional
trilobite site.
Ceraurus pleurexanthemus
Green 1832
ORDER PHACOPIDA
Flexicalymene senaria
(Conrad 1841)
ORDER PHACOPIDA
Bumastoides holei
(Foerste 1920)
ORDER CORYNEXOCHIDA
Hypodicranotus striatulus
(Walcott 1875)
ORDER ASAPHIDA
Meadowtownella trentonensis (Hall 1847) ORDER ODONTOPLEURIDA
TRILOBITES OF THE WALCOTT-RUST
QUARRY via Brett et al 1999
Order CORYNEXOCHIDA
Suborder Illaenina
Family Illaenidae Bumastoides decemsegmentus (Author, date?)
Bumastoides holei (Foerste 1920) Bumastoides porrectus (Raymond 1925) Nanillaenus americanus (Billings 1859)
Order ASAPHIDA
Superfamily Asaphoidea
Family Asaphidae Isotelus gigas Dekay 1824 Isotelus walcotti Ulrich in Walcott 1918
Superfamily Remopleuridoidea
Family Remopleurididae Hypodicranotus striatulus (Walcott 1875)
Order PHACOPIDA
Suborder Cheirurina
Family Cheiruridae
Subfamily Cheirurinae Ceraurus pleurexanthemus Green 1832 Gabriceraurus cf dentatus (Raymond & Barton 1913)
Subfamily Deiphoninae Sphaerocoryphe robusta Walcott 1875
Suborder Phacopina
Superfamily Phacopoidea
Family Pterygometopidae Achatella achates (Billings
1860) Calyptaulax eboraceous
Calyptaulax callicephalus (Hall 1847)
Suborder Calymenina
Family Calymenidae Flexicalymene senaria (Conrad 1841)
Order LICHIDA
Suborder Lichina
Family Lichidae Amphilichas cornutus (Clarke 1894) Amphilichas conifrons Ruedemann 1916 Amphilichas inaequalis (author, date?)
Order ODONTOPLEURIDA
Family Odontopleuridae Meadowtownella trentonensis (Hall 1847) Diacanthaspis parvula (Walcott 1877)
Order PROETIDA
Superfamily Proetoidea
Family Proetidae
undetermined proetid
Achatella acates
image courtesy Dave Comfort
Many thanks to Steve Hess, Dave Comfort, Jim Cook and others for advice, images, and info regarding this page.
Some Walcott-Rust references:
Brett, C.E., T.E. Whiteley, P.A. Allison, & E.L.
Yochelson. 1999. The Walcott-Rust Quarry: Middle Ordovician trilobite
konservat-lagerstatten. Journal of Paleontology 73(2):288-305.[Note:
since this publication, the divisions of the Ordovician have been
refined and the Rust Formation is considered part of the lower Upper
Ordovician, rather than upper Middle Ordovician. Images of Meadowtownella and the unidentified proetid above are via this citation (Brett et al 1999).]
Walcott, C.D. 1876. Preliminary notice of the discovery of
the remains of the natatory and brachial appendages of trilobites. advanced
print. Dec. 1876. 28th AnnualReportNew
YorkStateMuseum Natural History, 1879:89-92.
Whiteley, T.E., G. J. Kloc & C.E. Brett. 2002. Trilobites of New York.
CornellUniversity Press.
Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology Walcott-Rust page. (several of the images of trilobite specimens above are courtesy MCZ website, as well as the site locality image)
