McKay Group

McKay Group - Upper Cambrian
(Steptoean) 494.5-493 Ma
Carlo Kier Collection

In these pages are illustraded the trilobites collected or acquired from the McKay Group near Cranbrook in southeastern British Columbia, Canada, by my friend Carlo Kier.

A single locality from the lower McKay Group on a small tributary of Tanglefoot Creek in the Kootenay Ranges, about 22.5 km east north east of Fort Steele in southeastern British Columbia has yielded an astonishingly abundant and rich Upper Cambrian trilobite fauna of latest Steptoean age (click on satellite image to download the GooglerEarth .kmz file of the locality).
More than 3,600 specimens of largely complete trilobites record the presence of more than a dozen species. The trilobites of the Tanglefoot Creek locality, like those at the older Cambrian locality in the House Range, are preserved in nodules composed of vertical encrustations of calcite crystals. The locality is only tens of kilometres east of the Rocky Mountain Trench, a physiographic feature associated with a complex of faults that extends almost 1,500 km along the mountains, and was situated close to the margin of Laurentia during the Paleozoic.

The McKay Group (Evans, 1933) is a thick sequence of shales, limestones, and dolostones nearly 3,000 m thick exposed east of the Rocky Mountain Trench in a belt that extends from the Fernie area in the south to Yoho National Park in the north.
[Text extracted from: Brian D. E. Chatterton, Rolf Ludvigsen - Upper Steptoean (Upper Cambrian) Trilobites from the McKay Group of Southeastern British Columbia, Canada. Memoir (The Paleontological Society), Vol. 49, Supplement to Vol. 72, no. 2 of the Journal of Paleontology (Mar., 1998), pp. 1-43]

The fossils are organized by Order of appartenance. Click on the order distribution poster to show it at full resolution or click to this address to access to the poster with the nine orders of trilobites (I’m working for the version 2). Many these marvellous trilobites are wonderfully prepped by Dave Comfort.
I’m grateful also to Chris Jenkins for his help and availability to send me additional pictures of new findings from McKay sites.

Some specimens illustrated aren’t property of Carlo, in this case the Copyrigth is noted on the bottom of the photo. The list it is not clearly exaustive and will be upgraded periodically.

Internet sources of information are:
http://www.westernta.com/Formations/McKay.htm
http://www.fossilmall.com
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3790/is_199803/ai_n8801737
http://www.fossilmuseum.net/Fossil_Galleries/canadian-trilobites.htm
http://www.westernta.com/Formations/McKay.htm
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0078-8597(199803)49%3C1%3AUS(CTF%3E2.0.CO%3B2-O
http://geol.queensu.ca/people/price/pdf/GdBkGAC2003FldTrpClgry_Vncvr.0.pdf
http://www.tyra-rex.com/trilobite/CamB/tc2.html


	McKay Trilobites from the Carlo Kier collection II >

Click on name to access directly to the trilobite:

Agnostid sp.	Mesonacis sp.
Cernuolimbus cf pegakanthodes	Olenellus sp.
Cliffia cf. letaegenae	Orygmaspis contracta
Dicanthopyge sp.	Orygmaspis type2
Hedinaspis canadensis	Longhorn n.sp.
Helmet head	Orygmaspis type3
Housia sp.	Parabolinella n. sp.
Irvingella sp.	Pterocephalia norfordi
Labiostria n.sp.	Wanneria n.sp.
Labiostria westropi	Wujiajiania n.sp.

Order: AGNOSTIDA

Small trilobites (usually only a few mm long) with cephalon and pygidium strongly similar in outline and size (isopygous); enrollment typical.
Cephalic shield with deeply parabolic outline, maximum width usually anterior of genal angle, sutures proparian or lacking; border convex; glabella fusiform, widest at base (except in Condylopygidae), glabellar segmentation highly variable, sometimes complex, but in some species entirely effaced; most species eyeless; hypostome natant, specialized with ribbon-like wings; rostral plate lacking (or uncalcified).
Thorax composed by segments 2 (Agnostina) or 3 (some Eodiscina), axis typically broad, short fulcrate pleurae. Strongly isopygous; pygidial margin typically closely matching cephalic margin.
From: http://www.trilobites.info/ordagnostida.htm

? Agnostotes sp.

Ord. : AGNOSTIDA
Fam : -
Gen.: -

From site 1

Order: ASAPHIDA


	From: http://www.trilobites.info/ordasaphida.htm

Cernuolimbus cf Pegakanthodes PRATT, 1992

Ord.: ASAPHIDA
Fam.: PTEROCEPHALIIDAE
Gen.: Cernuolimbus, PALMER, 1960

From site 7


	Dicanthophyge sp Ord.: ASAPHIDA Fam.: APHELASPIDIDAE Gen.: Dicantophyge PALMER, 1965

Hedinaspis canadensis

Ord.: ASAPHIDA
Fam.: CERATOPYGIDAE
Gen.: Hedinaspis Chatterton & Ludvigsen, 1998

From site 7


	Housia sp Ord.: ASAPHIDA Fam.: PTEROCEPHALIIDAE Gen.: Housia WALCOTT, 1916b

Labiostria new sp.

Ord.: ASAPHIDA
Fam.: APHELASPIDIDAE
Gen.: Labiostria PALMER, 1955

From site 10

Labiostria westropi

Ord.: ASAPHIDA
Fam.: APHELASPIDIDAE
Gen.: Labiostria PALMER, 1955

From site1

Orygmaspis contracta

Ord.: ASAPHIDA
Fam.: PARABOLINIDAE
Gen.: Orygmaspis RESSER, 1937b


	Orygmaspis type 2 Ord.: ASAPHIDA Fam.: PARABOLINIDAE Gen.: Orygmaspis RESSER, 1937b

		Orygmaspis type 2 Ord.: ASAPHIDA Fam.: PARABOLINIDAE Gen.: Orygmaspis RESSER, 1937b From Site 1

Orygmaspis type 3

Ord.: ASAPHIDA
Fam.: PARABOLINIDAE
Gen.: Orygmaspis RESSER, 1937b

This specie has long curved genal spines, 2 very long macropleural spines on thoraxand no pygidial border spines

Orygmaspis n.sp 4.

Ord.: ASAPHIDA
Fam.: PARABOLINIDAE
Gen.: Orygmaspis RESSER, 1937b

From Site 1

Orygmaspis n.sp. 5

Ord.: ASAPHIDA
Fam.: PARABOLINIDAE
Gen.: Orygmaspis RESSER, 1937b

From Site 1


	With these two adds (December, 2007), there are at least five Orygmaspis species from the area now. Thanks to Chris Jenkins for the communication.


	Pterocephalia norfordi CHATTERTON & LUDVIGSEN, 1989 Ord.: ASAPHIDA Fam.: PTEROCEPHALIIDAE Gen.: Pterocephalia ROEMER, 1849

Order: PTYCHOPARIIDA

Large, heterogenous order with primitive origins and problematic classification, with specialized offshoots that are hard to frame within a general diagnosis.

Cephalon typically with opisthoparian facial sutures, with gently forward-tapering simple glabella bearing a broad, rounded front, usually with 3 pairs of rather narrow parallel glabellar furrows; natant hypostome. Thorax typically large with 8+ thoracic segments. Pygidium quite variable, but typically with a small pygidium bearing a border (Cambrian) or a larger pygidium with or without border (post-Cambrian).
From: http://www.trilobites.info/ordptychopariida.htm


	Irvingella n. sp. (left) Ord.: PTYCHOPARIIDA Fam.: ELVINIIDAE Gen.: Irvingella ULRICH & RESSER in WALCOTT, 1924b

	Irvingella sp. A ? This specimens was found in the Orygmaspis layers at Site 1 where there are no Irvingellas found, probably is a young Orygmaspis type 3 -see above-[Chris Jenkins personal communication] Ord.: PTYCHOPARIIDA Fam.: ELVINIIDAE Gen.: Irvingella Chatterton & Ludvigsen, 1998


	Wujiajiania n.sp. Ord.: PTYCHOPARIIDA Fam.: OLENIDAE Gen.: Wujiajiania LU& LIN, 1980 From site 7

		Wujiajiania n.sp. Ord.: PTYCHOPARIIDA Fam.: OLENIDAE Gen.: Wujiajiania LU& LIN, 1980 From site 1

Wujiajiania n.sp.

Ord.: PTYCHOPARIIDA
Fam.: OLENIDAE
Gen.: Wujiajiania LU& LIN, 1980

From site 7


	Parabolinella n. sp. Ord.: PTYCHOPARIIDA Fam.: OLENIDAE Gen.: Parabolinella BRÖGGER, 1882

		Cliffia cf. lataegenae Wilson 1949 Ord.: PTYCHOPARIIDA Fam.: SOLENOPLEURIDAE Gen.: Cliffia WILSON, 1951 From site 7 Extremely rare species.

McKay Trilobites from the Carlo Kier collection II >


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