1.3" Huge Eyed, Austerops Trilobite - Morocco

Huge Eyed, Austerops Trilobite - Morocco #105359

This is an unusual, 1.3" long, smooth-shelled Austerops kermiti from the El Otfal Formation of Morocco. There is about 1% shell restoration on a few axial rings.

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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