| A panoramic view across the world-famous Wheeler Amphitheater trilobite beds, Millard County, Utah. Here, a commercial fossil quarrying operation allows visitors to collect, for a reasonable fee, trilobites and other paleontologic specimens (including brachiopods, sponges, and echinoderms) in the middle Cambrian Wheeler Shale, approximately 505 million years old. Innumerable perfect, complete trilobites from this locality representing, primarily, a species called Elrathia kingii have found their way into museums and private collections all across the globe. All lighter-colored strata in middle-ground to just below the prominent cliff face on peak in upper center of photograph belong to the trilobite-rich Wheeler Shale; distinctive massive cliff face at top of peak is the middle Cambrian Marjum Formation. A Google Earth image I processed through photoshop. |