A Trilobite made of Glass.

[Arizona Chris]

Hi all,

 

Last weekend, me and paleo Wife found another fossiliferous outcrop in the Permian Fort Apache Limestone east of Payson, about a mile further down the Highway 260 trail.  The past few days, we have been soaking the 35 pounds in limestone in 10% Muriatic, and have found more treasures in this localities rock than any other!  In addition to the tiny microfossils I have been sharing with you from this area such as ostracods and tiny mollusks, we on occasion will find fragmentary bits of a trilobite called Anisopyge inornata.  They preserve for some peculiar reason as yellow caramel colored translucent silica, and can be spotted easily in the sorting trays because of this.  Tuesday night, a new batch came out of the pans from the coarse sieves, and we started going through it.  I almost fainted when I found something we had never seen before in the sorting tray - We finally found the "Holy Grail" so to speak of the Fort Apache Limestone, a complete pygidium preserved in carmel colored silica!  

 

This "glass" trilobite is not a mold of the exterior or inside but a complete replacement of the original scleroprotein with silica, similar to how the trees in the petrified forest were preserved.  Here are a few shots to share with you now, taken tonight of both the top and bottom sides.  That huge 16 gauge nail in the photo - is actually a straight pin.  The pygidium is about 3mm wide.  

 

So much more to come out of this amazing new site,  I will share it with you as time permits!

 

Top view at 10x

 

Bottom View of the inside of the pygidium

 

Me at the site last weekend

 

Paleo Wife Unit searches for fossiliferous rocks...

 

Well, thanks for looking, I hope you enjoyed this report!

 

PS - Im still figuring out the focus stacking software, bear with me!

[ynot]

Amazing find!

Thanks for sharing.

[Fossildude19]

That's pretty cool, Chris!

Congratulations on this find.  

Thanks for posting it. 

Regards,

[Miocene_Mason]

Wow nice (and super rare) find!

[Bobby Rico]

Wow nice find. Good one.

[Arizona Chris]

The second complete pygidium was found a day later, preserved attached to the bottom of a shell bit, and we almost missed it.  But the shell certainly protected it from the somewhat brutal acid bath and sieving process from becoming "trilo-bits" instead.  The same batch also gave us the very first scaphopods, and a gorgeous calcareous sponge. (coming soon).

[Shamalama]

I think I can almost see the terrace marks on the Pygidium underside shot... Unless those are beekite rings.  Very nice!