Trilobite_Dipleura Dekayi

[hitekmastr]

This is the cranidium of a trilobite known as Dipleura dekayi which often shows up as in a disarticulated form showing the skin and pieces. When we first saw this we thought it was a fossil of a smooth skinned fish and were surprised to discover it is a trilobite.

This morning we discovered that we had an adjacent piece of limestone so we matched the two sections as shown - the seam is shown by the white arrows. The skin on this top piece is smooth compared to the skin on the bottom piece which has a pebbled texture.

The textured cup shaped sections in image 1b are on the same rock and we are wondering if this might be the "eye" of the trilobite.

Additional closeups are shown.

We were surprised to discover that there were over 15,000 different species of trilobites. So far we've collected a greenops and a dipleura...which means we only have 14,998 to go!

Edited August 18, 2012 by hitekmastr

[piranha]

The schizochroal eye belongs to a phacopid trilobite. The other photos show the characteristic dimpled surface of Dipleura. Add a few more bugs to the old estimate as there are approximately 22,000 species recorded in the global database of trilobites (Adrain, 2008).