5.5" Enrolled Spiny Drotops Armatus Trilobite - Multi-Toned Shell

Enrolled Spiny Drotops Armatus Trilobite - Multi-Toned Shell #241161

This is a super-spiny, enrolled Drotops armatus trilobite which would be about 5.5" long if outstretched. It comes from the Bou Dib Formation near Mrakib, Morocco. It has been exportly prepared to remove the hard, surrounding limestone and leave it perched on a pedestal of rock. It has a beautiful, natural, multi-toned shell coloration and excellent eye facets. Nearly all of the spines appear to be reattached during preparation with some restored.

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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