General approach on Trilobite Identification?

[Mahnmut]

Hello dear fellow forum members,

 

I have to admit that until recently, the fascinating diversity of Trilobites escaped my closer attention.

Now, triggered by @Kane s beautiful drawings and @rews Trilobite of the week I decided to take a closer look at some of what I had in my showcase for many years simply as "trilobite", my (everchanging) focus being more on vertebrates.

By looking at a lot of pictures I decided the two rolled up specimens below should be Phacops to the left and Hollardops ("Metacanthina") to the right.

Then I found a pic of Gerastos, which to my untrained Eye resembled Phacops quite a bit. And then I learned that Gerastos is not even a Phacopid, but a Proetid.

 

So here is my Question: How do I find out what order of Trilobite I am looking at before searching for finer cladistic resolution?

Or is that not a helpfull approach due to high diversity inside the orders, maybe convergent features...?

I searched the Forum but didn´t find a basic Trilobite guide, if there is one I´d gladly follow a link.

Thanks in advance,

J

 

[Kane]

Sam Gon III does an excellent job of maintaining a helpful website that also gives "fact sheets" on each of the trilobite Orders: http://trilobites.info/ordersoftrilobitesold.htm

 

Each page provides general morphological descriptions, as well as lovely line illustrations (created by Sam Gon III) of what is fairly typical of each Order and Superfamily/Suborder. If the anatomical terms are a bit too much like wading in the deep end for some, his site also has very good anatomical diagrams and explanations. It's a fantastic online trilobite resource, and I cannot think of one better.