New Trilobite Arrivals From Morocco

I was very excited to have a big box of trilobites arrive from Morocco yesterday.  It taken over a month to reach me, so I had been getting pretty impatient.  There are lots of more common species as well as a few nice spiny ones protected in plastic cases.  The quality of trilobite preparation available from Morocco has come a long way since I first started collecting trilobites 15 years years ago.

There is still plenty of work to do before they get listed on FossilEra.  I'll go through every one of them to verify there is no major restoration work and that I can accurately detail any minor restoration in the descriptions.  Some types of restoration with reveal itself under black light, while much of it will require close examination under high magnification looking for incorrect textures or colors.  

I will also "reprep" some of the specimens to remove any remaining matrix in between segments, on spines, and add additional relief making them stand out better.  They will then be professionally photographed and should start appearing in the Moroccan Trilobites section of FossilEra.com this week.

Trilobites from Morocco are notorious for being heavily doctored or entirely fake.  I've heard some estimates that 90% of the trilobites on the market from the country are fake and that may not be a huge exaggeration based on material I've seen for sale both at shows and online.  I not only deal with a trusted supplier, but have nearly 15 years of experience preparing trilobites myself which I'm able to put to good use in identifying fake or doctored material.

Here's one of the spiny trilobites in the batch, a really nice Dicranurus monstrosus. Still needs another hour of prep work to remove matrix on some of the spines and along the axis. This is one of the most faked trilobites out there, but real examples like this are real treasures.