Olenellus clarki
Trilobite
Lower Cambrian
Latham Shale
Providence Mountains, California, USA

27mm part and counterpart on 57mm slab.

Arthropod. Trilobite. Redlichid.

Olenellus is a genus of one of the most ancient trilobites. It lived only during the Early Cambrian and is found at sites in western and eastern North America as far north as the Yukon Territory of Canada, as far south as Georgia in the U.S. and up the east coast in Pennsylvania. Its rather flat body is typical of early trilobites.

This is a good, affordable specimen for the novice putting together a display of California fossils of different ages or something for a school science project.