1.65" Morocops (Barrandeops) Trilobite - Jorf, Morocco

Morocops (Barrandeops) Trilobite - Jorf, Morocco #108215

This is a really nice, 1.65" Morocops (formerly Barrandeops) trilobite collected from Jorf, Morocco. The rock here is very chert-like with a glassy appearance. The shell is translucent so the trilobites tend to take on the coloration of the underlying rock, leading to very uniquely preserved specimens.

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.

More About Trilobites