2.4" New Odontopleurid Trilobite From Jorf - Only One Known!

New Odontopleurid Trilobite From Jorf - Only One Known! #114582

Here is a fantastic, new Odontopleurid trilobite from Jorf, Morocco. It's the only one of this type that I've seen or heard about. It's exquisetly preserved with long flowing spines and two very long spines coming strait up off the occipital ring and first axial ring. The trilobite is 2.4" long including the spines and has been wonderfully prepared. The last segment was slightly shifted and was moved back into place during preparation, but otherwise there is no restoration.

Trilobites are collected from a 15-meter-thick section about 6kilometers northwest of Jorf, Morocco. Unlike many other localities, these rocks do not have distinct deposition layers, but rather are massive. They likely represent a gigantic "mud mound" that formed at the base of a volcanic island due to mud slides. The rock is very silicified, almost like a chert, and can be quite colorful. The actual shells on the trilobites are translucent: the trilobite tends to be the color of the rock it sits on.

Because the rock contains a large amount of silica, it is extremely hard, and preparing trilobites from the site is difficult since the rock does not separate well from the shell. Within the 15-meter section, only about two meters have been heavily collected, so occasionally this site will produce some extremely rare and one-of-a-kind specimens collected in float from the other layers.

A view of the collecting locality northwest of Jorf, Morocco

Collecting trilobites at the Jorf locality in 2015

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