Super Rare, .85" Radiaspis Trilobite - Issoumour, Morocco

Super Rare, Radiaspis Trilobite - Issoumour, Morocco #202702

This is one of the rarest, Devonian trilobites from Morocco, and I've only ever seen a few complete examples. It is a spiny Radiaspis from the El Otfal Formation near Issoumour, Morocco. They are small trilobites, this one being just under an inch in length. The back of the trilobite is disarticulated with the tail slightly pushed underneath which is the reason for a relatively low price on this specimen.

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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