Crotalocephalina & Reedops Trilobite Association - Atchana

This is a natural association of a Crotalocephalina gibbus and a Reedops from Atchana, Morocco. The specimens has been painstakingly prepared to remove the surrounding limestone, leaving the trilobite fossils perched in an aesthetic display. The Crotalocephalina would be about 2.6" long if it was outstretched and the Reedops around 1.5". Less than 1% shell restoration along the repaired cracks.

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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