7.2" Parahomalonotus Trilobite With Friend - Foum Zguid, Morocco

Parahomalonotus Trilobite With Friend - Foum Zguid, Morocco #71261

This is a species not normally seen from the Timrhanrhart Formation, Parahomalonotus calvus. The larger of the two specimens is a huge at 7.2" long and very inflated. Both trilobites display some compression which is the case with nearly all of the trilobites that come out of the layer. There is a bit of disarticulation near the head of the larger specimen with the last segment pushed up underneath the head.

Neither specimen has any compositing, and just some minor shell restoration along the repaired cracks. There is a repaired crack between the two specimens and while I think there is a chance the two trilobites have been composited next to each other on the plate, things seem to align correctly.

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.