CORNOPROETUS CORNUTUS TRILOBITE FOSSIL FROM MOROCCO

You are bidding on this BEAUTIFUL AND REAL FOSSIL professionally prepared originally from the upper-ordovician period (450 million years ago). This is a fossil from Upper Fezouata formation of Morocco. The Arenig Fezouata Formation is composed of thin-bedded, pyrite-rich, fine sandstones and mudstones, uncovered in the Draa Valley, north of Zagora in southeastern Morocco.
 
Order: Asaphida
Suborder: Asaphoidea
Superfamily: Asaphida
 

The size of the specimen is 8-1/2" by 6-1/2" by 1-5/8"  (matrix included),
weight 3 lbs 2.0 oz.
Beware: stand not included in auction!

While digging for fossils, real limestone matrix fossils will have been split and broken up to see if a fossil is present in the limestone. This is an unavoidable break of the trilobite prior to preparation but afterwards, the 2 pieces are carefully glued back together and the fossil extraction can proceed. When the matrix is carefully removed with professional tools under microscope, the fossil will keep the scars of the original fractures and the better the preparation, the least the break tracks remain. The results of this is that most of genuine fossils have normal breaks and this is a proof of authenticity, in other words !

Trilobites are hard-shelled, segmented creatures that lived hundreds of millions of years ago in the Earth's ancient seas. They are considered to be one of our planet's earliest complex life-forms and are one of the key signature creatures of the Paleozoic Era. Trilobites went extinct before dinosaurs even existed.
 
Trilobites were the first creatures with a skeleton (Exoskeleton) so they were easily fossilized. Their shell is divided lengthwise into three lobes (hence, the name TRILOBITE meaning "three-lobed"): a central axial lobe, and two symmetrical pleural lobes that flank the axis.
Morphologically, the trilobite body is divided into three major sections:

•  a cephalon (or head) with eyes, mouthparts and sensory organs such as antennae
•  a middle region called the thorax, made up of a number of overlapping segments (anywhere from 2 to 61)
•   a pygidium (or tail section) in which the segments were fused.

Lucky buyer will have free shipping (within continental USA).