3.85" Prone Isotelus Trilobite - Mt. Orab, Ohio

Prone Isotelus Trilobite - Mt Orab, Ohio #213162

This is a nice, prone 3.85" long Isotelus maximus from the famous Mt. Orab, Ohio trilobite locality. Isotelus maximus is the state fossil of Ohio.

There have not been many good Isotelus being found in the quarry in recent years. This specimen is laid out perfectly prone which is unusual. There is only about 2-3% shell restoration in total which is very minor for the majority of Isotelus from Mt. Orab.

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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