Trilobite Flexicalymene

A collection of amazing images from Dry Dredgers President, Jack Kallmeyer.

(Click on any picture to view an enlargement).

Enrolled Flexicalymene

Two Enrolled Specimens (Scale in mm.)

The trilobite Flexicalymene is quite common in the Cincinnati Area. They are most often found "enrolled" (rolled in a ball). This may have been a way of defending themselves from predators (such as the Cephalopod) or from severe storms that often ravaged the Ordovician Sea. Many died in this position and were found 440 million years later as fossils. One possible reason why they are more commonly found enrolled than outstretched is that they hold together as fossils better than ones that are buried in prone positions.

How Trilobites Enroll


A Flexicalymene

A Partially Curled Flexicalymene

Some Flexicalymene are found partially curled, as in the specimen shown above.


A Flexicalymene with multiple Rusophycus

Flexicalymene and multiple Rusophycus

Here is an astonishing piece of shale (petrified mud) showing several burrows known as Rusophycus along with a couple of the exoskeletons of the trilobite Flexicalymene. The burrows are likely to have been made by Flexicalymene trilobites. The trilobite in the center of this picture is a molt. The live trilobite shed it's shell, leaving it here in nearly perfect condition. There is another, smaller, Flexicalymene to the left of that one. You can see it better by "clicking" on the picture.


Tracks of a Flexicalymene

These trace fossils are harder to identify as caused by Flexicalymene, but they are arthropod tracks probably made by a trilobite. It may have been a Flexicalymene, inferred roughly from the track spread. The scale is in millimeters.

See photos of whole Flexicalymene Trilobites found on our field trips.


The Dry Dredgers is an organization of amateur geologists and fossil collectors.

More about the Dry Dredgers

More about the trilobite Flexicalymene

More about Cincinnati Trilobites

More about Identifying Trilobite Fragments

Sign Our Guest Book!

The Dry Dredgers and individual contributors reserve the rights to all information, images, and content presented here. Permission to reproduce in any fashion, must be requested in writing to admin@drydredgers.org.