2.5" Spiny Ceratarges Trilobite - Zireg, Morocco

Now this is one alien looking trilobite, it's almost hard to imagine that it was once alive inhabiting our oceans. It's a Ceratarges aries from the Middle Devonian limestone of Morocco. One can imagine that the large spines may have served as defensive protection against fish that had just begun to develop hardened jaws and likely had trilobites on the dinner menu.

At 2.5" long this is a fairly large specimen. The preparation is pretty good. There is some restoration at the base of the horns and they might be composites from another specimen. Other than that, the only restoration is just some touchups along the repaired cracks.

There are currently about 5 different species of Certarges described from Morocco each a slight variation on the others. A paper describing some of these species can be found at:

NEW SPECIES OF THE LICHID TRILOBITE CERATARGES FROM THE MIDDLE DEVONIAN IN MOROCCO
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DETAILS
SPECIES
Ceratarges aries?
LOCATION
Zireg, Morocco
FORMATION
El Otfal Formation
SIZE
2.5" long
SUB CATEGORY
ITEM
#63138
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