Moroccan Trilobites Starter Collection

Description: Trilobites from Morocco are often large and three dimensional. The Hollardops, Reedops, and Gerastos trilobites are laboratory prepared, but not with the great care and extensive amount of time required for the finest results, have minor flaws, but preservation is generally good (see Edcope Enterprises for truly world class and rare Moroccan Trilobites). The Diacalymene is what is known a body fossil, essentially an internal cast where the exoskeleton is no longer present as a separate hard skin. The Hollardops, Reedops, and Diacalymene are all members of Class Trilobita Order Phacopida, a very diverse group that lived from the Ordovician through the Devonian. Phacopids are renowned for their amazing schizochroal crystal eyes with many lenses, for which close up photos are shown below. The Gerastos trilobite is a member of Trilobite Order Proetida that lived from the Ordovician to the Permian. It was, in fact, the last order of trilobite to go extinct, finally dying out in the Permian-Triassic extinction even (PT extinction). The proetids tended to be diminutive trilobites.

This small collection of four trilobites offers a great value to start a collection, or to provide a gift to the young aspiring collector. It also represents a great science or evolution teaching tool, given the anecdotal facts cited above.