Chocolate Colored Sylvania Eldredgeops Trilobite

Here is a 1.9 inch chocolate colored Eldredgeops rana crassituberculata trilobite from the world famous Silica shales. These trilobites as none of the quarries in the Silica Shale allow collecting anymore. This has caused these beautiful 3D phacopids to become highly sought after by collectors. This is a nice prone, though slightly compacted example of this classic trilobite. It exhibits the beautifully preserved compound eye structure these trilobites are so well known for.

The trilobite Eldredgeops gazed up at a vibrant oceanic world during the Devonian Age of Fish. These ancient arthropods are famous for the rich luster of their thick and well-preserved exoskeletons. The prominent shizochroal eye is an exquisite display of adaptation to the competitive life at the bottom of a sea exploding with diversity.

Eldredgeops have very large, separately set lenses without a common cornea. This compound eye is known as the shizochroal eye, and this style of sight is ideal for low light conditions. The unique shizochroal adaptation is characterized by up to 700 relatively large, thick lenses made of the purest calcite. A doublet system of mounted lenses within the eye reduced distortion, while perched eyes promoted a wide field of view.

Eldredgeops is a genus of the order Phacopida. They lived in the Middle Devonian faunal stage called the Givetian, which lasted from 387.7 ± 0.8 mya to 382.7 ± 1.6 million years ago. Phacopida means "Lens-face.” Members share a distinctive developmental stage lacking segments, called protaspis.

Eldredgeops is also found in a variety of sizes, making it an excellent subject of recent studies to better understand body-size scaling and the metabolic rate of trilobites.

The Silica Shale near the Ohio-Michigan border by Toledo, OH, contains a spectacular array of fauna. This includes 40 cnidarian species, 40 species of bryozoans, 63 species of brachiopods, 21 species of bivalves, 19 species of crinoids, and many, many other organisms. This open marine depositional setting is contiguous with seas in New York and Ontario.

On the Devonian sea bottom that created the Silica Shale, there were periods of extreme turbidity, aeration, and other conditions that alternated with times of shallow, clear, and turbulent environments. These are primary reasons for distinctive, “smothered bottom” layers that provide a coveted fossil hunting experience. Another exciting surprise are pyritized fossils, a product of sulphate-reducing, post-depositional conditions.

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