A PAIR OF TRILOBITES

A PAIR OF TRILOBITES

Asaphus cornutus & likely Asaphus platyurus

Ordovician

Russia

Asaphus cornutus: specimen, 13 x 8 cm, matrix, 24.5 x 16 cm; Asaphus platyrus: specimen, 10 cm, matrix 16 x 11.5 cm. Both in very fine condition, one specimen with an old collector's label under base.

The Asaphu cornutus is an exceptionally large and magnificent specimen, pulled from the ordovician strata near Saint Petersburg in Russia. At or near the size limit for its species, it demonstrated a remarkable preservation of the exoskeleton. Presented together with another Russian trilobite. The taxon takes its name from the latin cornutus, meaning horned, and the Asaphus cornutus fell at about the half-way point in the evolutionary sequence of the lengthening of the ocular stems of Russian ordovician trilobites, giving them a horend appearance.