3.2" Flying Dicranurus Trilobite With Crotalocephalina & Reedops

Flying Dicranurus Trilobite With Crotalocephalina & Reedops #251701

This is a spectacularly prepared, 3.2" wide example of the spiny Dicranurus monstrosus with its distinctive "rams horns". There is a 3.2" long Crotalocephalina trilobite next to it along with a smaller Reedops and a partial head of a Zlichovaspis. The Reedops and Zlichovaspis head are naturally associated but the Crotalocephalina appears to have been composited onto the piece. Total restoration on the piece is less than 1% and mainly on the axis of the Reedops.

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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