New Species Phaetonellus Trilobite

Phaetonellus aff aloisi

Trilobites Order Proetida, Family Tropidocoryhpidae

Geologic Time: Middle Devonian

Size: Trilobite is 28 mm long (curve measure) by 25 mm wide on a 70 by 60 mm matrix

Fossil Site: Foum Ziguid, Morocco

Fossil Code: 18202

Price: $595.00


PhaetonellusDescription: Superb example of a member of the Order Proetida with many fine details present. At first glance, it looks much like Cornuproetus, a relatively common trilobite. The most diagnostic features of that taxon are a granulose cephalon and thorax and the swept-back genal spines. Look more closely, however, and you will notice the distibctive the pygidium as well as the axial spines. Once termed Decoroproetus in the trade, it is actually Phaetonellus, and is rarely offered for sale. The Proetidae were among the last of the trilobites to go extinct in the Permian over 100 million years later. It is not the currently-known P. planicauda , but something as yet not described from Morocco. In consulting with a researcher from the U.K. it seems most like the Barrandean trilobite from the Emsian Suchomasty Limestone Phaetonellus aoisi, so we will use the term Phaetonellus aff aloisi for now.

Trilobites Purchase Information

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Phaetonellus Trilobite

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