3.05" Asaphus Punctatus Trilobite - Exposted Hypostome

Asaphus Punctatus Trilobite - Exposted Hypostome #89054

This is a beautiful, 3.05", stalk-eyed Asaphus punctatus trilobite from the Vilpovitsy quarry in the St. Petersburg region of ruassia. It is nicely prepared with the hypostome (mouthplate) exposed on the underside. The base of the rock has been cut flat so that it sits upright on a flat surface creating an aesthetic display.

There is about 5% restoration on the specimen. There is some along the repaired crack through the tail, on the right side of the first three axial rings and then on the right cheek of the trilobite. This amount of restoration is pretty typical for Russian asaphid trilobites, whose shell likes to flake off during collection.

Photo of the Putilovo quarry, near St. Petersburg Russia where this trilobite was found.

Trilobites were a very diverse group of extinct marine arthropods. They first appeared in the fossil record in the Early Cambrian (521 million years ago) and went extinct during the Permian mass extinction (250 million years ago). They were one of the most successful of the early animals on our planet: over 25,000 species have been described, filling nearly every evolutionary niche. Due in large part to their hard exoskeletons (shells), they left an excellent fossil record.

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