Trilobites of the Wheeler Shale, Utah

Locality: House Range & Drum Mountains, Western Utah, USA

Stratigraphy: Wheeler Shale Formation
Age: Cambrian - ca 505 mya

The U-Dig Quarry, west of Delta, Utah.

 Location of Utah today Locality of Utah during the Early Cambrian

Western Utah is one of the best-known Cambrian fossil localities in the world. The Wheeler Shale and Marjum
Formation, strata of Middle Cambrian age, exhibit various exposures throughout the House Range and nearby
mountain ranges west of the town of Delta, Utah. The Wheeler Shale is named for a major feature in the House
Range, the Wheeler Amphitheater. The Wheeler Shale contains interbeds of shaley limestone, mudstone, and thin
platy limestone. Much of the Wheeler Shale is not particularly fossiliferous, but certain layers contain abundant
trilobites and other shelly fossils. The Wheeler Shale also is known for a diverse biota of soft-bodied fossils,
including many of the same taxa found in the Burgess Shale.

In the Cambrian, the continent of Laurentia (now the majority of North America), was equatorial, and oriented
about ninety degrees from its current position. Close to the shorelines of Laurentia, limestone was deposited as
shallow-ater reefs. Beyond the limestone belt, fine sediments built in deeper offshore contours, sometimes rapidly
via undersea landslides off the reef platform. These offshore deposits along the paleoequator include much of the
Wheeler Shale, the Burgess Shale of western Canada, and other sites from California through Utah to the
Northwest territories of Canada. All of these sites yield remarkably preserved Cambrian fossils.

The most famous Wheeler Shale fossil is the trilobite Elrathia kingi; so common at some sites that specimens are
commercially quarried and are made into novelty accessories, as well as sold to collectors and institutions all over
the world. However, Elrathia is just one of about fifteen trilobite genera of the Wheeler Shale. Bathyuriscus
fimbriatus is also relatively common at certain sites. Even more abundant are several species of agnostid
trilobites, such a Peronopsis interstricta. These are typically less than a centimeter in length. Here are eight
representative species of the Wheeler Shale:

Peronopsis interstricta
Elrathia kingi Modocia typicalis Asaphiscus wheeleri
AGNOSTIDA
PTYCHOPARIIDA PTYCHOPARIIDA PTYCHOPARIIDA
Family Peronopsidae
Family Alokistocaridae Family Marjumiidae Family Asaphiscidae
 Bolaspidella housensis Jenkinsonia varga Modocia laevinucha Bathyuriscus fimbriatu
PTYCHOPARIIDA PTYCHOPARIIDA PTYCHOPARIIDA CORYNEXOCHIDA
Family Menomoniidae Family Alokistocaridae Family Marjumiidae Family Dolichometopid

It is notable that the trilobite fauna of the Wheeler Shale, being a Middle Cambrian locality, is dominated by
Ptychopariida, Corynexochida, and Agnostida. In addition to trilobites, there were other species of arachnomorph
(trilobite-like clade) arthropods such as Naraoia. These trilobite-like arthropods demonstrate that the group from
which trilobites arose was itself successful and diverse, though being uncalcified, are only preserved under
exceptional conditions, such as at exceptional lagerstätten such as the Burgess Shale and Chengjiang. Because the
Burgess Shale was the first lagerstätte with such exceptional preservation, other sites with similar preservation are
referred to as "Burgess Shale type" lagerstätten. This level of preservation occurs only infrequently in the Wheeler
Shale.

TRILOBITA OF THE WHEELER FORMATION, UTAH

courtesy of the Western Trilobites Association
Taxa held in common in red
HOUSE RANGE DRUM MOUNTAINS
Order Ptychopariida Order Ptychopariida
Altiocculus sp.
Altiocculus harrisi Asaphiscus wheeleri
Alokistocare sp. Bathyuriscus sp.
Asaphiscus wheeleri Bolaspidella drumensis
Bathyocos housensis Bolaspidella sp.
Elrathia kingi
Bolaspidella housensis
Elrathia sp.
Bolaspidella wellsvillensis Ptychoparella sp.
Brachyaspidion microps Spencella sp.
Brachyaspidion sulcatum
Elrathia kingi Order Agnostida
Elrathina(=Ptychoparella) Peronopsis amplaxis
wheeleri Peronopsis fallax
Jenkinsonia varga Peronopsis gaspensis
Modocia brevispina Peronopsis interstricta
Peronopsis montis
Modocia laevinucha
Peronopsis segmenta
 Modocia typicalis Ptychagnostus atavus
Ptychoparella wheeleri Ptychagnostus gibbus
Ptychagnostus intermedius
Order Agnostida Ptychagnostus seminula
Baltagnostus eurypyx
Hypagnostus parvifrons
Peronopsis amplaxis Order Corynexochida
Peronopsis bidens Olenoides expansus
Peronopsis fallax Olenoides serratus
Peronopsis gaspensis Tonkinella breviceps
Peronopsis intermedius Zacanthoides divergens
Peronopsis interstrictus Zacanthoides sp.
Peronopsis montis
Peronopsis segmenta Order Asaphida
Ptychagnostus atavus Glyphaspis concavus
Ptychagnostus gibbus
Ptychagnostus germanus
Ptychagnostus occultatus
Ptychagnostus seminula

Order Corynexochida

Bathyuriscus fimbriatus
Olenoides expansus
Olenoides nevadensis
Zacanthoides sp.

Some Wheeler Shale literature:

Gunther, L. F., Gunther, V. G., and Gunther, G., 1994, Some Middle Cambrian fossils of Utah, in Special issue on
Utah: Utah Geological Survey Public Information Series 26, p. 59-62.

Robison, Richard Ashby; 1962. Late Middle Cambrian Faunas from the Wheeler and Marjum Formations of Western Utah. PhD Thesis, University of Texas at Austin

Robison, Richard Ashby; 1971. Additional Middle Cambrian Trilobites From the Wheeler Shale of Utah. Journal of Paleontology 45(5):796-
804
Sundberg, Frederick A.; 1994. Corynexochida and Ptychopariida (Trilobita,Arthropoda) of the Ehmaniella Biozone (Middle Cambrian), Utah and Nevada. Natural History
Museum of Los Angeles County - Contributions in Science, No.446
Utah's Cambrian Life: Evolution and Biogeography of Burgess Shale Type Fossils

Western Trilobites Association

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Walking Trilobite animation ©2000 by S. M. Gon III

last revised 06 March 2008 by S.M. Gon III
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