A Phacops trilobite that appears to be crawling over the limestone it sits on. This trilobite has great eye facets and cephalon (head) preservation. There is some filler on the head and above the right eye visible under UV light. The specimen shown measures 2.5" from the head to rear of the fossil along the central axis. Phacops as a genus is composed of many species with a regularly changing taxonomy, so the exact species is challenging to determine.
Trilobites are one of the earliest fossils of arthropods to exist in the fossil record, existing between the Cambrian Period (521 million years ago) and the Permian-Triassic extinction event (251 million years ago). The Phacops genus existed from the Late Ordovician Period (~458 million years ago) to the end of the Devonian Period (359 million years ago).
Locality: Jebel Issoumour, Alnif Cercle, Tinghir Province, Drâa-Tafilalet, Morocco
Species: Phacops sp.
