This trilobite is an extremely rare Pliomera fischeri recovered from a glacial erratic of Ordovician limestone in northern Germany. This specimen is apparently only the second complete one ever published from the erratics  of Northern Germany. The preparation proved to be very challenging. This is mainly due to the fact that the shell is very delicate and the rock quite sticky. 

For this reason, the preparation was accomplished using fine air abrasives and by a lot of patience. The exposure of the pleurae and the pygidium is particularly difficult because the spaces between them are very deep. Interesting is the exact interlocking of the short pygidial protrusions and the bulges at the anterior margin of the cephalon. This “closing mechanism” can be excellently observed in rolled specimens like this one. The right eye was unfortunately lost during the recovery and was therefore reconstructed.

Fossil: Pliomera fischeri EICHWALD 1825

Locality: Rastorf near Kiel (Germany)

Formation: Vaginatenkalk, Lower Ordovician

Width of the cephalon: about 2.2 cm

Work required: 19 hours

Collection: Stefan Polkowsky

The trilobite was published in 2022 on the cover of Geschiebekunde aktuell, issue 3:

Geschiebekunde aktuell: Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft für Geschiebekunde, 38th volume, 2022 issue 3.
Link to GfG: https://www.geschiebekunde.de/