New Trilobites
Wonderful new find in Morocco. Generally, fossils are flattened by the thing that kills them - mud slide, rocks, etc... These guys were slowly engulfed and this preserved their exterior shape.
The
Natural History Museum has the goods:
Amazing new trilobites have been found in Morocco with details of their anatomy preserved intact.
Fossils are usually flattened by the weight of deposited sediment above them as they lie on the sea floor after death or following burial, or by subsequent crushing of the rock formed from the sediment, during tectonic movement. In the case of these trilobites, however, the fossils show little or no distortion. As the delicate exoskeletons are complete, it is likely that this gentle burial followed an initial sudden engulfment that suffocated the trilobites.
Posted by DaveH at March 22, 2005 10:30 PM