Odontochile Trilobite?

[kingcobb]

Attached are photos of a Odontochile I took a chance on.  It's nice size and while not cheap, for my purposes it was a good price.

 

I was fairly certain it was legit when I originally posted it based off the high res photos, but when I got it I freaked myself out as I wasn't seeing the eye lenses, but they are there.  Just a lesson in the dangers of high res photos I guess.

 

Anyway, curious what ya'll think.  Also curious if Odontochile is correct as I understand from searching there is some discussion about that.

 

Thanks!

 

Just wanted to add that it passes the bite test and I am unable to find any obvious seams in it with my loupe.  I know it has some repairs but no restoration, but that was disclosed when speaking with the seller.

[Fitch1979]

genuine piece .. not highest end prep .. but 100% real to me .. 

[piranha]

This species is: Zlichovaspis rugosa rugosa (Hawle & Corda 1847)

[kingcobb]

Thanks like I said, it was just a cool big piece compared to most trilobites I encounter and the price wasn't bad all things considered.  Thanks for the correct ID.

[Wrangellian]

I hope you considered all those scribe marks on it, especially on the cephalon (head), when you bought it.

[aeon.rocks]

Looks real, imo just glued parts (normal).

 

You mentioned, that it was not cheap? Preped like this, they usually are, but perhaps there was a high resellers margin... Many Moroccan trilobites are not so easy to prepare well and especially in case of sticky Zlichovaspis it can take a lot of time to save ornamentation of the exoskeleton, but for commerce to be able to sell cheap (to resellers) they are destroyed and worthless for any serious collector. Just my 2 cents, not sure what's your puropse with this, but my advice would be to buy a book about Moroccan trilobites or get familliar with trilobites in any other way, if you start collecting/buying more trilobites... Not because of fear about fakes, but because it's good to know what you are buying. Most of these bugs are cheap considering work and time invested, but when overpreped like your specimen, really not at all that interesting. And you were probably very close to buying a fake... High res photos are useful to see details of exoskeleton, not just eye-lenses. Not sure based on what you were "fairly certain it was legit", if prone, it would easily be a cast... Details like this might also help you to keep away from fakes and overpriced resellers (although based on price of the well-prepared authentic trilobites, you might think that those are overpriced, it's usually just the other way around, so I would be careful when buying poor prep massacred quality bugs from resellers - chances are you are just throwing $ away; what's the difference if you are buying a fake rock shaped like a trilobite or a worthless rock with a shape of a trilobite, which used to be a trilobite before prep? ):

 

 

Maybe help you avoid fakes: 

https://www.trilobiti.com/post/are-trilobites-rare-or-common-fossils?fbclid=IwAR1pCOTXsQ6JxcGP7pCHLMl1HU4_M7Y0XKbCRYzlgkOmKufev53yrGIrg18