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DROTOPS ARMATUS TRILOBITE LAB PREPPED

DEVONIAN PERIOD:  395 - 345 million years ago

As the saying goes, "It takes two hands to handle a whopper!".  This investment grade, lab-prepped Drotops armatus IS truly a WHOPPER!  The color is completely natural and is a very rare and highly-sought after bright butterscotch yellow.  The matrix is all original.  What makes this example also very rare is there is NO RESTORATION to any of the spines with many still intact.  There is just a barely noticeable repair to the rock, running across the specimen just behind the cephalon.  This was the break that was used to find the creature in the large piece of host rock in the first place and this is the only way trilobites in this type of rock can be located.  Other than a very small region of the body that has been repaired along that crack, there is NO RESTORATION to this specimen. 

Genuine Drotops armatus are very seldom available on the market.  When you can find one, the spines are almost always faked.  Quite frankly, I have never seen one where they weren't.  Even worse, it is common to take a much less valuable Drotops megalomanicus and ADD the spines completely fabricating an expensive specimen out of a much less rarer trilobite.  One way to tell if the spines are fake is look for a globular look to the base of the spine, as the putty spine will be pushed on the bug and will spread out at the base, looking like it was made of clay or resin and not an integral part of the creature's carapace.  Also, the spines of real ones are blunter and heavier like golf shoe cleats, not the fancy, artistically thin and high spines that you see on the created specimens.  Look at the last photo of this specimens pygidium.  There are several intact spines.  You can see they don't look like someone stuck nails in the bug and painted them as the artificial specimens look.  Also pay attention to the bases of the spines.  Where the spine emerges from the creature's carapace is a smooth, radiused curve with no ridges.  Many faked spines of ANY species will rarely have this smoothness and gradual curve to the base of the spine.    

Premium color, super natural detail, no restored spines with many intact, genuine original matrix and meticulous, lab-prepping done here in the U.S. - what more could you ask for in such a rare species?  Genuine, nice quality non-spiny Drotops are becoming very hard to find on the market nowadays.  A REAL spiny variety - Drotops armatus, is SUPER RARE and always a real find when one is made available to the public.  This can be proudly displayed with the finest of specimens for the connoisseur. 

This  specimen was excavated from Mt. Issoumour located southwest of Erfoud in the pre-Sahara region of Morocco.

VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED AND INVESTMENT GRADE

7.5" long and 4.75" wide with original matrix, trilobite is 5.25" in length and 2.5" in width.

SOLD     TR1001     INCLUDES STAND     Actual Item - One Only