Description: This tiny trilobite is a very rarely offered Taklamakania tarimensis from the Taklamakan Desert of Xinjiang, China. Material from this very remote region is only very rarely available, which is why trilobites from there are practically unavailable. Even though the trilobite is very small with a length of 4mm, it is already fully grown. T. tarimensis is characterised by only 3 pleurae present and was blind.

The present specimen is extremely well preserved and also very inflated. It was slowly and carefully fine-blasted under 30x magnification. Particularly noteworthy are the preserved rings on the spindle of the pygidium.

As with all my fossils, this specimen comes with a signed certificate of authenticity confirming the fossil’s authenticity.

Literature: Zhou, Z. Webby, B.D., Yuan W. (1995): Ordovician trilobites from the Yingan Formation of northwestern Tarim, Xinjiang, northwestern China, in: Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology, 19:1, S. 47-72.