Sunday, May 25, 2014

Parahomalonotus sp. trilobite from Morocco

I picked up a few new Moroccan trilobites recently. This was one of them, a Parahomalonotus. I had never seen one of these before encountering this specimen at a show. It immediately reminded me of a Trimerus or Dipleura trilobite. It is very obvious that this has had some repair work done to it with very visible epoxy filling missing sections in the thorax and around the one eye as well as tool marks. Upon examination, the rock that it rests on is consistent throughout for texture and color, the cracks all line up with the fossil and I see no obvious paint or casting bubbles. There was no label included with the fossil but from what I have been able to research, Parahomalonotus lived during the early Devonian (Lockhovian stage). No clue what formation or where it was found in Morocco.










Normally I don't buy lower quality fossils, like this one, but this was an oddball I'd never seen and the price was ridiculously low. The dealer told me it had come from a old collection and that it was among "the junk" which is why it was priced so low. For me it is perfect as an example of a fairly rare species. A search on Google does not yield many results of specimens for sale and most of them are going for hundreds to thousands of dollars.

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