Calymene blumenbachi

"Dudley Bug" redirects here. For the vintage car, see Dudly Bug.

Calymene blumenbachi
Calymene blumenbachii, on display at the Natural History Museum, London
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	†Trilobita
Order:	†Phacopida
Suborder:	†Calymenina
Family:	†Calymenidae
Genus:	†Calymene
Species:	†C. blumenbachi
Binomial name
Calymene blumenbachi

Calymene blumenbachi is a species of trilobite discovered in the limestone quarries of Wren's Nest Hill in Dudley, England. Nicknamed the Dudley Bug or Dudley Locust by 18th century quarrymen it became a symbol of the town and featured on the Dudley County Borough Council coat-of-arms. Calymene blumenbachii is commonly found in Silurian rocks (420-440 million years ago) and is thought to have lived in the shallow waters of the Silurian, in low energy reefs. This particular species of Calymene (a fairly common genus in the Ordovician-Silurian) is unique to the Wenlock series in England, and comes from the Wenlock Limestone in Much Wenlock and Wren's Nest in Dudley. These sites seem to yield trilobites more readily than any other areas on the Wenlock Edge, and the rock here is dark grey as opposed to yellowish or whitish as it appears on other parts of the Edge, just a few miles away, in Church Stretton and elsewhere. This suggests local changes in the environment in which the rock was deposited.

External links

• Dudley County Borough Council coat-of-arms at Civic Heraldry
• Wren's Nest at bbc.co.uk