1" Rare Proetid (Tropidocoryph) Trilobite With Prepared Microfossils

Rare Proetid (Tropidocoryph) Trilobite With Prepared Microfossils #213420

This is a fairly rare, spiny Proetid (Tropidocoryphe) from the Lhandar Formation of Morocco. It is exceptionally well prepared, and the surrounding limestone is full of microfossils that have been exposed under microscope. This added many hours to the overall preparation time, but provides a view into something typically not seen. The microfossils primarily include small corals, gastropods and other fragments.

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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