I'm certainly a big fan of lichids, perhaps more so than most other Orders of trilobites. One arrived for me in the mail, originally from the Jorf locality in Morocco. May I introduce Akantharges mellishae: Certainly my kudos to the preparator. These partly metamorphosed trilobites (lending them a sort of plasticized look) are not easy to prepare given that they can appear encased in hard chert.
This one used to be known as Basseiarges mellishae, but Allart van Viersen's article last year more properly placed it as a junior synonym of Akantharges. A close look at the pygidium tells the "tail," so to speak. It is a short, but great article for those keen on reading up on lichid literature. Highly recommended: Van Viersen, A. P. Systematics of Devonian trochurine trilobites (Lichidae). N. Jb. Geol. Paläont. Abh. 300/2 (2021), 175–187. Comments are closed.
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Kane Faucher
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February 2024
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