Trilobite (Flexicalymene ouzregui) Fossil Specimen Dimensions:  1.75" x 0.9" x 0.35" Weight:  18 grams (0.6 oz) Age:  465 million years old (Ordovician Period) This genuine Trilobite fossil from Morocco would make a treasured addition to your personal collection, as well as a unique gift.  You'll receive the exact same, one-of-a-kind Trilobite fossil shown in the pictures. A heads-up about Flexicalymene Trilobite specimens: Most Flexicalymene Trilobite fossils dug up in Morocco are broken in half during excavation, then glued back together.  Why?  The low price of these Flexicalymene fossils means that it's simply not economically worthwhile to carefully excavate each one by hand.  The trilobite hunters pretty much dig them out using sledgehammers and pickaxes. Ouch!  This practice is so widespread that a lack of cracks in a Moroccan trilobite fossil may actually be a clue that it's a fake. Trilobites were an incredibly diverse and successful group of bottom-dwelling marine arthropods that lived during the Paleozoic Era.  They first appeared during the Cambrian Period and went extinct at the end of the Permian, roaming the oceans for 270 million years.  (Arthropods are the phylum of animals with jointed legs, like insects, spider, and shrimp.)  Trilobites are closely related to modern horseshoe crabs. Trilobite means "three lobes," referring to its longitudinal division into a center axial lobe with two pleural lobes on each side.  Trilobite bodies, which were covered with calcareous exoskeletons, are also divided into the cephalon (head section), thorax (midsection), and the pygidium (tail section.)  Trilobites had a pair of antennae extending from the cephalon, and many pairs of legs and gill branches.  Although some Trilobites were blind, many had large, compound eyes with hundreds of individual lenses. Trilobites were highly diversified and occupied an amazing range of ecological niches.  They were filter feeders, detritus eaters, scavengers, or predators, and ranged from less than a tenth of an inch to more than 2 feet in length.  So far, over 20,000 species of Trilobites have been identified.  Trilobites play a valuable role helping geologists date the age of the rock in which their fossils are found. Please visit my store, Mother Lode Rock Shop, for more Trilobites and other Rocks, Minerals, and Fossils.  Thank you for looking.