Trilobites, an early arthropod relative of spiders, horseshoe crabs, and scorpions, preserved in this level of detail only occurred as a result of very sudden underwater landslides called turbidite sequences, which ravaged the early earth when the continents were still very much on the move. The contorted body positions of the trilobites demonstrate a final fight against being buried alive.
This is an extremely ornamented member of the trilobites' extremely well-known and globally distributed Lichid family. These trilobites have adapted for extreme defensiveness. Their long genal appendages afford them controlled escape from the water column...
Category
15th Century and Earlier Moroccan Antique Cement Natural Specimens