2.8" Crotalocephalina Trilobite With Prepared Microfossils

Crotalocephalina Trilobite With Prepared Microfossils #210219

This is a uniquely prepared Crotalocephalina trilobite from the Lhandar Formation at Lghaft, Morocco. What is interesting about the specimen, is all of the micro fossils in the surrounding rock have been carefully exposed rather than just "blowing" them away during preparation. This added many hours to the overall preparation time, but provides a view into something typically not seen.

The microfossils primarily include small corals, crinoid stems, and tiny ammonoids or gastropods.

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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