Two "Flying" Paralejurus Trilobites - Foum Zguid, Morocco

This is a stunning, natural association of two Paralejurus trilobites collected near Foum Zguid, Morocco. The limestone has been painstakingly removed using air scribes and air abrasives leaving them "flying" on pedestals of rock. This style of preparation is very impressive but also very time consuming taking dozens of hours to prepare a piece like this.

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 with over 25k currently described species, filling nearly every evolutionary niche. Due in large part to a hard exoskeleton (shell), they left an excellent fossil record.

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