Trilobites assigned to 25 genera and 39 species are reported from the Crepicephalus Zone (Marjuman Stage) and Aphelaspis Zone (Steptoean Stage) in the lower part of the Deadwood Formation in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Six taxa are left in open nomenclature, and one new species, Glaphyraspis newtoni, is described.

Analysis of the lithologies for this interval from the best exposed measured sections on a southeast-northwest transect reveal a nearshore, shallow subtidal, siliciclastic dominated environment to the southeast, succeeded offshore by a shallow subtidal to lowest intertidal carbonate shoal environment, and then a transitional shaly limestone interval into a more shaly distal intrashelf basin to the northwest.

Specimens of species of Coosia, Crepicephalus, Tricrepicephalus, Kingstonia, Pseudagnostina, and Coosina comprise more than 75 percent of the fauna of the Crepicephalus Zone. Coosina ariston, Crepicephalus snowyensis, Tricrepicephalus tripunctatus, Arcuolimbus convexus, and some species of Blountia had a strong preference for the shallow-water siliciclastic facies present in the southeastern sections closest to the paleoshoreline. Crepicephalus rectus, Tricrepicephalus coria, Agnostogonus, cf. A. incognitus and the genera Coosella and Uncaspis preferred the farther offshore, deeper-water, shaly intershelf basin located in the northern Black Hills. Trilobites from the Crepicephalus Zone are used to correlate the lower part of the Deadwood Formation with coeval strata elsewhere in North America.