3.6" Asaphus Holmi Trilobite With Exposed Hypostome - Russia

Asaphus Holmi Trilobite With Exposed Hypostome - Russia #89063

This is a good-sized, 3.6" example of one of the scarcer Russian asaphids, Asaphus holmi. It comes from the Vilpovitsy Quarry in the St. Petersburg region of Russia. The rock around it has been nicely shaped the base cut flat so that it displays nicely without a need for a display stand. The hypostome (mouthplate) has been exposed underneath the head of the trilobite.

Compared to most of the Russian asaphids on the market this one has pretty minimal restoration. It's probably about 3-4% in total, one patch on the left hand side of the tail, and then just some crack fills where the shell fractured.

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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