Calymene, genus of trilobites (extinct arthropods) dating from the Ordovician Period (505 to 438 million years ago). Well known in the fossil record, Calymene remains have been found in which impressions or actual remains of appendages are preserved. Calymene and its close relative Flexicalymene are frequently preserved as tightly rolled fossils. The rolling may be either a death position or a defensive one that the animal assumed to protect its soft, vulnerable underside.