Cute 2.6" Stalked Eyed Asaphus Kowalewskii

Here is a stalked eyed Asaphus kowalewskii trilobite that looks like it is ready to crawl off the plate. It was collected from the Vilpovitsy quarry near St. Petersburg Russia. Out of the dozens of described Asaphus species kowalewskii has the longest eye stalks which is would have used like a periscope to look around while staying safely buried in the mud.

This specimen is decent sized at 2.6" long and laid out perfectly prone on a small piece of matrix. Yes, those stalk eyes are real. Like nearly all trilobites from these quarries there is some shell restoration because shell tends to either flake off when the rock is broken to find them or they have weathered shell from portions being exposed. The restoration on this specimen is less than on most, about 2-3% mainly around the base of the eye stalks where they were broken.