RARE MULTIPLE TRILOBITE GROUP...

Description

RARE MULTIPLE TRILOBITE GROUP Phacops rana crassituberculata
Silica Shale, Middle Devonian (+/- 385 to 398 Million Years Ago), North Quarry, Sylvania, Ohio, USA
This exceptional "mass mortality" Trilobite plate on grey limestone matrix from Sylvania, Ohio features an assemblage of at least ten individual Phacops rana crassituberculata specimens of which almost half are virtually complete. The fine detail in this extremely well preserved specimen is observable down to the complex "omatidial" eye structure. The matrix shows signs of typical minor repair and stabilization, but all of the fossils appear to be original on the rock. Trilobites (meaning "three lobed") are an extinct class of arthropods that lived exclusively during the Paleozoic Era then went extinct as part of the great extinction at the end of the Permian Period some 250 million years ago. Trilobites have three sections: a cephalon (head), a thorax (body) and a pygidium (tail) although they are actually named for the longitudinal divisions of their bodies. The Phacops genus lived in Europe and North America during the Silurian and Devonian periods. It was a rounded creature with a "globosa" head and large eyes. This specimen is unique in that the Trilobites are not rolled up in the defensive posture characteristic of smaller Trilobites, especially the Phacops rana. The largest Trilobite on the plate measures 2 in. (5 cm) in length. This specimen dates to the Middle Devonian Period, some 385 to 398 million years ago, and measures 5 ¼ in. x 4 in. x 1 ¼ in. From a private fossil collection.



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