In the early 1970s when I was a graduate student at the University of Western Ontario in London and trying to learn the intricacies of Ordovician trilobites, I would eagerly await the arrival of the simetimes-annual Trilobite News from Oslo so I could find out who was doing what in the realm of tribites. Even though the library at Western was pretty good, it received no more than a small fraction of the many journals and monograph series that carried papers on trilobites. So after reading the research reports and scanning the lists of recent publications, I would fill out a small stack of reprint request cards which would then be dispatched to dozens of trilobite workers in distant corners of the world. Trilobite News was not only a source of information (and reprints!) but, perhaps more importantly, it was tangible evidence of the existence of a loosely knit community of trilobite specialists -- a small and widely distributed subset of paleontologists numbering not much more than a hundred specialists, to which I began to consider myself as belonging.

With the demise of Trilobite News later in the 1970s, it became much more difficult to find out who the new trilobite workers were, and to keep up with an ever-diversifying literature on trilobites -- problems that were made worse by many university libraries having to reducer the number of journal subscriptions.

This spring, at the Murchison Symposium in Keele, England, I discussed, with as many trilobite workers as I could, the possibility of starting another newsletter for trilobite workers. Everyone, without exception, thought it was a great idea and, thus encouraged, I distributed a form letter to more than a hundred paleontologists on five continents -- requesting research reports, lists of recent publications and other newsworthy items that would be of interest to trilobite workers.

Excellent responses to that initial letter came in orver the summer from Australia, from North America, from Europe and from China. And this first issue of The Trilobite Papers includes research reports from nearly half the trilobite workers of the world -- not a bad beginning! It is my hope that this number will be the first of an annual newsletter that will serve as an informative and lively medium for the exchange of data and ideas among the far-flung followers of the phylum.

In a specialist newsletter such as ours, the Research Reports section is undoubtedly the mainstay, but these reports cover only part of which is potentially of interest to trilobite workers. For this, the first number, I have indicated some section headings.

Opinions on any aspect of the newsletter or about general trends in trilobitology are solicited for the Letters to the Editor pages (any letter that starts with "I am shocked and appalled about ..." is virtually guaranteed publication!). The History of Trilobite Studies could include short items dealing with contentious issues or about interesting events or individuals. The lives and contributions of trilobite investigators such as C.D. Walcott, J. Barrande, G.F. Matthew and R. and E. Richter are quite well known. But what about J.W. Salter, N.P. Angelin, J. Green, F. Schmidt, Y.C. Sun, C. Boeck, A.W. Vogdes, O. Jaekel, R. Etheridge Jr., G. Menighini, V.N. Weber, J.F. Delgado, G. Holm and J.W. Dalman.

Theses include a wealth of date and becaue not all theses are published, lists of recent Trilobite Theses for different countries would be very useful. A Trilobites Lost & Trilobites Found column could include information about a missing collection that has recently been discovered. Or it could be an appeal for information on the whereabouts of a lost trilobite collection. The entire newsletter does not need to be deadly serious. So, also send in cartoons, songs and poems that deal with trilobites -- be they humorous, whimsical, provacative or just plain enjoyable. Along similar lines, perhaps we should start a Mel Rudiger Column for interesting literary references to trilobites. Rudiger was the hapless anarchist/paleontologist in Robert Silverberg’s futuristic tale of time travel, Hawksbill Station. Along with other political prisoners, he was transported a billion years (sic) back in time to a penal colony in the Late Cambrian located on the shores of Iapetus Ocean, where he kept himself sane by collecting marine life and by writing the definitive treatise on trilobites -- based, naturally, on living specimens.

A newsletter, unlike a journal or a magazine, requires the active and on-going participation of the contributors/readers if it is to succeed. I look forward to receiving your contribution to TP-2.

Rolf Ludvigsen
Denman Island
October 5, 1989

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The Trilobite Trot

Anonymous ditty to be sung to the tune of Balling the Jack. The source is the Smoker at the First North American Paleontological Convention held at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, 1969

First you squeeze your flippers close up tight,
Flip ‘em to the left and flap ‘em to the right.
Glide around the bottom kinda nice and light,
And then you crab along and crab along with all your might.
Stretch your endopodites out in space,
Along the water sed-i-ment interface.
Take a teensy hop and like it or not
You’ll be doin’ the Trilobite Trot.

Next you let your tootsies drag a bit,
Just enough to scuffle up a pile of grit,
Let the current drift you gently to the right,
And then you dig ‘em in and dig ‘em in with all your might.
Since your trail’s bi-ra-mous it will clearly show
If you scampered to or if you skittered fro.
When you come to rest, mark the spot,
You’ve been doin’ the Trilobite Trot.

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Phillipsia attacking Griffithides

Adrian Rushton of the British Geological Survey has recently (1989, Earth Sciences History) told the story of this lively cartoon which depicts a mock heroic battle between John Phillips and Richard Griffith over the age of some unfossiliferous strata in Ireland. The artist was Henry James who, at the time, was a geologist to the ordnance survey in Ireland. Because the rocks were supposedly Silurian, Roderick Murchison, the author of The Silurian System, served as umpire. The cartoon is undated but because the fossils are well drawn, their souce can be determined and, accordingly, the cartoon’s age inferred -- Rushton states, "a departure from the usual practice of using fossils for determining the age of rocks". It was probably drawn in 1843 because Rushton was able to show that the combatants were entirely armoured with trilobites taken from Murchison’s Silurian System (1839) or from Portlock’s Geology of Londonderry (1843).

John Phillips on the left:

Helmet: Harpes flanaganni (Portlock, pl. 5, figs. 5-7)
Arm: Remopleurides spp. (Portlock, pl. 1, fig. 3)
Back: Asaphus buchii (Murchison, pl. 25, fig. 2)
Rump: Bumastus barrienses (Murchison, pl. 14, fig. 7)
Shield: Isotelus powisii (Portlock, pl. 6, fig. 1)
Legs: Isotelus (Portlock, pls. 6-10)

Richard Griffith on the right:

Helmet: Ampyx sarsii (Portlock, pl. 1, figs. 9-10)
Shoulder: Possibly a Phillipsia, but no figure identified
Shield: Trinucleus caractaci (Murchison, pl. 23, figs. 1a-c)
Thigh: Phillipsia jonesii var. seminiferus (Portlock, pl. 11, fig. 5)
Calf: Isotelus?