Flexicalymene ouzregui
| Flexicalymene ouzregui | ||||||||||||
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Flexicalymene ouzregui from Erfoud , Morocco (length: 7 cm) |
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Upper Ordovician | ||||||||||||
| 449 to 443.7 million years | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Flexicalymene ouzregui | ||||||||||||
| ( Destombes , 1966) | ||||||||||||
Flexicalymene ouzregui (syn. Diacalymene ouzregui ) is a trilobite species from the Upper Ordovician .
features
The animals were up to ten centimeters long. On the head shield (cephalon) it has a clearly furrowed glabella . It becomes narrower towards the hem and is bell-shaped or fingernail-shaped. There is a clear hem on the front of the head shield. The trilobite had very small, holochroal eyes . The facial sutures are gonatoparous. This means that the opening points of these seams lie exactly in the corners of the cheek. The hypostome is conterminant and the head shield has a rostral plate . The thorax consists of 13 segments. The spindle is higher and about 2/3 as wide as the side lobes. The side lobes are rounded on the belly side. The tail shield is semicircular and without points at the hem.
Finds
The fossils are mostly found in druse-like stones. These formed due to the difference in pH value due to the decomposition of the animal carcass and the surrounding marl clay . When a rock nodule is cracked open, it breaks into a negative and a positive form of the fossil. The fossils are mostly colored chocolate brown. The fossil is often spread out and, in rare cases, found rolled up. The fossils mostly come from the Ktaoua Formation in Morocco along Erfoud , Rissani , Alnif to Zagora .
trade
The fossils were previously sought by Bedouins in the Ktaoua Formation as exchange objects. Today they are also often sold to tourists. They are also imported from Morocco for resale. The outstretched shape is usually very cheap compared to other trilobite fossils. The fossils are often referred to in the trade as Diacalymene ouzregui . They can also be easily confused with other genera of Calymenidae .