Temporal range: Lower and Middle Ordovician
Carolinites is a genus of trilobite, assigned to the Telephinidae family, that occurs during the Lower and Middle Ordovician. Carolinites had an pantropical distribution, and there is evidence that it lived in upper parts of the water column. The free cheeks of Carolinites are largely covered by its huge eyes, except for the attachment of large genal spines that extend downward, backward and lateral and gradually curving further backward. The glabella is slightly bulbous, the occipital ring is well defined, but further transglabellar furrows are lacking. The thorax has 10 segments. The axis of the pygidium is highly vaulted, with a curved spine emerging almost perpendicular to the midline and ending parallel to it and a node on each of the other three segments. Carolinites is known from what are today Australia (Tasmania), Canada (Alberta), China, France, Spitsbergen, and the United States (Utah).
Carolinites has been named after Caroline Creek in Tasmania, the type locality of C. bulbosa.
- C. genacinaca occurs in the Ordovician of the United States (Utah, Nevada), East Greenland, East Siberia, Novaya Zemlya, Arctic Canada and Svalbard.
- C. killaryensis was found in the Ordovician of Western Ireland, Svalbard and the Western United States (Basin Ranges).
- C. sibericus has been recorded from the Ordovician of Western Ireland, Siberia, Svalbard and the Western United States.
- R.C. Moore, ed. (1959). Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology. Part O – Arthropoda 1 – Arthropoda general features, Proarthropoda, Euarthropoda general features, Trilobitomorpha. Geological Society of America and University of Kansas Press.
- Whittington, H. B. et al. (1997) Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology. Part O, Revised, Volume 1 – Trilobita – Introduction, Order Agnostida, Order Redlichiida.
- McCormick, T.; Fortey, R.A. (2002). "The Ordovician trilobite Carolinites, a test case for microevolution in a macrofossil lineage". Paleontology 45 (2): 229–257. doi:10.1111/1475-4983.00235.
- Fortey, R.A. (1975). The Ordovician Trilobites of Spitsbergen [II. Asaphidae, Nileidae, Raphiophoridae and Telephinidae of the Valhallfonna Formation]. Norsk Polarinstitutt Skrifter 162. Oslo: Norsk Polarinstitutt.