Koneprusia Dahmani Trilobite - Superb Preparation

This is a spectacularly spiny Koneprusia dahmani trilobite quarried in the Lower Devonian deposits of Morocco. It differs from the more commonly seen Koneprusia brutoni by having a pair of spines coming off the first two axial rings as opposed to a single spine.

Preparing a trilobite like this requires dozens of hours of highly skilled work to remove the hard limestone from surrounding in layer by layer using airscribes and air abrasives, typically under high magnification. This specimen is very well prepared and the only restoration is to repair a tiny bit to shell where the crack runs through the head. If you look at the left hand side of the body you can see the repaired crack running along the axis, from where the trilobite was broken during collection allowing the cross-section to be seen in the rock.