A little experiment in go slow.

[Guest11596]

I wish I knew what created the burrows. You find pockets in which almost every trilobite fossil at Penn has at lest some pyritized burrow segments in it. I have always thought it was a worm of some type but that is sheer speculation on my part. The burrows all seem to be similar in diameter. I have googled the subject and really could not find anything very specific.

Read this earlier today. Thought it might be of some interest...

https://coas.missouri.edu/news/early-trilobite-gets-worm

[Malcolmt]

Thanks for the link... that is very interesting... food for thought at least.....

[Ptychodus04]

Although the differences appear subtle from the photos, they are certainly there. I'm sure they are obvious in person.

It looks like you have a bonus trilobite on the reverse side of the slab!

[Fred]

Thanks a lot for this informative topic Malcolm. This material is quite different from what I'm used to, but the dilemma of speed versus quality is not. Personally, I'm on the slow side of the spectrum, but that is mostly because none of my prep is commercially oriented. Both for my own collection or for a scientific collection, the emphasis is always on quality over quantity. But even that has limits.

Anyway, your efforts to document this dilemma are admirable and give very interesting insights.