FAKE TRILOBITE

Examples of faked Moroccan trilobites

- Unnatural trilobite assemblages

Frequently seen at shows are the combinations of various faked trilobites on a single plate. I call this a “faked assemblage” (see pic. 5). These plates tend to be circular in shape, thin and slightly hollow. I have even seen clocks mounted to the center, surrounded by cast trilobites. There are simply no such assemblages in nature. This does not mean there cannot be several authentic specimens on a single plate, it simply means there are no such natural parties of different species that often do not even appear in the same geological formation.

Picture 5: completely faked trilobite assemblages, all made of resin with an underlying layer and mounted onto real rock, casts identified as: Leonaspis, Walliserops, Crotalocephalus, Paralejurus, and something unidentified on top (left image),Odontochile, Psychopyge, Phacops and Scutellum (right image). Photography: Sonntag, specimens owned and sawed up by Burkhard.

- The "Burmeisterella " - Fake Trilobites or Trilobites that do not exist

Some of the most impressive fakes coming from Morocco are the complete "Burmeisterellas" (Picture 6). To the best of our knowledge, unto this day, no authentic complete specimen of this kind has actually been found in Devonian of Morocco. It has to be said that all complete specimens we saw so far turned out to show manipulations, at least. Burmeisterella belongs to the Homalonotidae, close relatives to the Calymenia. The partial remains of these large trilobites are found isolated in the Devonian of Morocco. There do not seem to be complete specimens. They make for very impressive trilobites and it is no wonder that inventive Moroccans took all the parts they could find, cephalons, pygidia, pleurae, etc., and assembled them to form what they believed would represent a complete specimen of this genera. They just took every rock that was found to contain parts of these Burmeisterellas, extracted the parts completely from the surrounding matrix and collected them until they had everything they needed to assemble a trilobite. According to Mr. Burkhard, the Moroccans exchange missing parts among each other: "I need pygidia of this spiny trilobite and I have pleurae of that species that you are looking for, let's make a deal."

Picture 6: The "Homalonotida"- Fake. A: Spiny Burmeisterella sp.? (Spines are actually tiny Orthoceras glued onto the exoskeleton, real trilobite parts are assembled and fixed with resin onto a prepared piece of real matrix. B: Smooth Burmeisterella sp.? Cephalon and pygidium of this trilobite consist of real trilobite parts, the thorax section marked by the red lines is made of resin. Both faked specimens are approximately 25 cm in length. Photos: Sonntag, B: Photo from the collection of Burkhard. P.S. In 2002 Heiko and I saw these "trilobites" for the first time and were both fooled.

Once they have all the parts they need - real parts but coming from various individuals - they will take them and place them one by one onto a piece of prepared matrix, most likely specially made from the Devonian of Morocco, using resins and plaster. There seems to be a spiny and a non-spiny type of Burmeisterella. The first one however, if it does exist in nature at all, was in our case faked by gluing tiny Orthoceras (the tiny shells of a kind of cephalopod) onto the exoskeleton in order to mock real spines. We have been assured by Mr. Burkhard that these Orthoceras have been found in certain places in such masses that they are used frequently now to mock spines of all sorts, making it much easier to produce fakes. In former times, the mock spines had to be made from plastics, it is much more comfortable using the tiny Nautiloids. So once the "trilobite" has been assembled, the Orthoceras are glued onto the cephalon, thorax, pleurae and pygidium and there you go - a fantastic looking trilobite, wow! There are, cases in which only the cephalon and pygidium are real and the thorax is made of resin as can be seen in Picture 6-B. The quality of these fakes can be very good, at least the trilobites look very impressive! Some of the less sophisticated fakes - mostly of the smooth kind of Burmeisterella in a brownish color - often show unnatural distances between the pleurae (see Picture 7-A), the matrix in between looking carved. The first time we saw this it already looked sort of suspicious to us but we could not be sure until we sawed the sawed-up pieces (see Picture 7-C) of Mr. Burkhard's during the Hamburg Fair's special exhibition on faked trilobites in December of 2003.)

Picture 7: more examples of faked Homalonotida from Morocco. A: the red stripes mark the resin in between the assembled pleurae, the right side of the pygidium was most likely broken off, so the right pleurae were shortened in order to pretend that the trilobite was still partially buried inside the matrix. B: cutting right through the "trilobite", the red lines and spots marking areas made of resin, the whole thorax, the free cheeks and the anterior border are faked and made of resin. C: a sawed up spiny Homalonotid, the spines are actually tiny Orthoceras, real trilobite parts appear yellowish while the resin looks grey. Debris of rock has been mixed with the plaster used to save material. All photographs taken by Sonntag, trilobites belonging to and sawed up by Burkhard.

- Fakes of giant Cambrian trilobites

The giant Paradoxidae from the Cambrian of Morocco are well-known and sought-after trilobites worldwide. It does not surprise that these trilobites have become the subject of extensive faking activities. The demand is satisfied by producing false material either assembled from isolated trilobite parts or completely made of resin or plaster. These fakes now seem to represent the major part of the Paradoxidae traded and it is not that easy to acquire the real thing. At the same time, it has become more and more difficult to identify fakes (see Picture 8-A), although there are still some very bad ones around that can be easily told (see Picture 8-C), faking is an art itself!

Picture 8: All Paradoxidae that can be seen here are fake! A: Acadoparadoxides briareus Geyer 1993: brown-yellowish painted cast trilobite, about 25 cm in length, fixed into an artificial mould using resins, the arrows marking a crack where the cast and the rock did not completely glue together, the circle marking an area where the artisan working on the cast failed the natural symmetry of the pleurae, it is quite certain that fakes of this nature have been sold in the past. B: Cambropallas telesto GEYER 1993: The same disintegration between cast and matrix can be seen in this image (red circle), the pleural tips have been created way too long and tipped (should look like the pleurae to the left), the whole trilobite about 15 cms in length. C: very primitive fake of Cambropallas, perhaps the rear section of the axis is real but everything else is made of resin or plaster, the glabellar furrows carved into the cast, proportions inadequate compared to the real thing. D: the cast has completely disintegrated from the mould it was placed in. Photos taken by Sonntag, Photographs A, B, D: collection Burkhard.

How can you tell fakes? For the most part, the trilobites are made of resin or plaster using negatives of real Paradoxidae, painted and then fixed into a mould dug into a real piece of Cambrian matrix. Because of the inadequate gluing between the materials used, the cast very often, partially disintegrates from the rock and tiny cracks appear along the cast/matrix-line (see Picture 8, A-B) or the cast disintegrates from the rock altogether and the whole construction falls apart (see Picture 8-D). As far as the cast itself is concerned, the same criteria that is already mentioned in the chapters on Devonian trilobites apply. The casts often look very smooth and symmetric, preparation marks and at least smaller damages that should be present in real fossils are missing. There are neither cracks or missing areas to the exoskeleton, remains of matrix between the pleurae or the characteristic features of the exoskeleton surface (e. g. the small tubercles on the exoskeleton of Cambropallas or terrace lines on the free cheeks of Acadoparadoxides trilobites). The natural color of the Cambrian Paradoxidae very often is being imitated by using a brown-yellowish paste that does not exactly match the real thing. Many fake trilobites show a suspicious shade of yellow. The original exoskeleton of Cambrian trilobites has usually been replaced over time with hydrated iron oxides (often limonite) of red and brown color or yellow and brown, therefore jet black Cambrian trilobites have surely been the subject of manipulation, painted over to cover restorations, etc, and to create a "better contrast".

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