Amazing, 13" Cluster Of Trilobites (8 Species + Carpoids) - Fezouata

Amazing, Cluster Of Trilobites ( Species + Carpoids) - Fezouata #301485

This is a truly amazing trilobite plate from the Fezouata Shale near Zagora, Morocco. This 13 x 5.2" section of shale contains twenty two trilobites of eight different species as well as four fossil carpoids. While mortality plates containing many trilobites are not that rare from the Fezouata Formation, it's very rare to get so many different species in close proximity. This may be the most species of trilobites we've seen in one cluster from any location. There are:

13 x Asaphellus
2 x Lonchodomas
1 x Euloma
2 x Colpocoryphe
1 x Harpides cf grimmi
1 x Kierarges morrisoni - Rare
1 x Selenopeltis binodosa
1 x Parvilichas marochii - Rare
4 x Unidentified Carpoids

The piece is very well prepared to bring the trilobites out in good relief against the shale. The red coloration is natural due to the oxidization of iron pyrite which originally replaced the fossils. A really stunning, museum quality display piece.

Trilobites were a very diverse group of extinct marine arthropods. They first appeared in the fossil record in the Early Cambrian (521 million years ago) and went extinct during the Permian mass extinction (250 million years ago). They were one of the most successful of the early animals on our planet: over 25,000 species have been described, filling nearly every evolutionary niche. Due in large part to their hard exoskeletons (shells), they left an excellent fossil record.

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