2.8" Devonian Phyllocarid Fossil - Bundenbach, Germany

Phyllocarids are a type of arthropod that developed during the Cambrian. They had a hard protective shell, hinged carapace, and were thought to have a lifestyle similar to shrimp. Exactly how they fit into the arthropod taxonomy is still under debate, with it being proposed to represent a stem-lineage euarthropod or a primitive branchiopod crustacean.

Most of the Bundenbach quarries have been closed for some time, so a very limited amount of material is coming to market from this area.

The lower Devonian (lower Emsian) slates from Bundenback have been quarried for roofing material for centuries. Quarrying continued until the 1960s, when the competition from cheaper synthetic or imported slate resulted in production decline. The last pit closed in 2000. Mining of Hunsrück slate was important for the discovery of Paleozoic fossils. Although not rare, fossils can only be found through extensive mining of slate and time consuming preparation. Fossils are hard to see lying under the surface of dark slate. In 1970, Wilhelm Stürmer, a chemical physicist and radiologist developed a new method to examine the Hunsrück slate fossils using medium energy X-rays. The Bundenbach “Hunsruck Slate" is famous for yeilding one of the most important assemblages of Paleozoic fossils, with 260 animal species including mollusks, echinoderms and arthropods - of which the phacopid trilobite Chotecops is certainly the most abundant.