Xiphosurine

Ordovician

Upper Fezouata Formation

Zagora, Morocco.

49mm on 150mm slab.  Extremely high quality prep.

Arthropod.

Xiphosurine is a term referring to a member of the arthropod Order Xiphosura, the group that includes all horseshoe crabs and their close relatives, extinct and extant.  This group is more closely related to arachnids than crustaceans.

This specimen may represent the earliest-known form belonging to the Xiphosura – perhaps too primitive to call it a horseshoe crab. Preparation was done unusually well. It has been 3-dimensionally prepped out on all sides to stand slightly above the matrix. Very high quality and displayable.