Fossil Trilobite pygidia, Asaphoidea Merlinia, ‘Merlin’s Butterfly’ 465 million years old

Name: Fossil Trilobite pygidia, Asaphoidea Merlinia, 'Merlin's Butterfly' 465 million years old
SKU: F10009
Price: 165.00 AUD
Availability: InStock

$165.00 AUD

Fossil Trilobite pygidia (tail), upper cast

Asaphoidea Merlinia

Middle Ordovician Period, 465 million years old

from Builth Wells, Wales

slab 21x12cm, specimen is 9cm wide

Provenance: from an old English collection, bearing several ink inventory numbers.

With an old label bearing earlier identification to species ‘Ogygia buchi’, now identified as Asaphoidea Merlinia.
Builth Wells, Wales, was a major slate quarry, supplying roof stone around the world in the 19th century. This specimen has several inventory numbers, including the large red example, typical of collections in the 19th & early 20th century.

These beautiful Welsh Trilobite fossil casts were some of the earliest to be described in England as being signs of ancient life by the 17th century Welsh Naturalist, Edward Lhuyd -although he had it identified as a flathead fish.

Earlier than this, they were noticed and talked about. The tail-piece, or pygidia, of the trilobite looks like ribbed wings of a butterfly, and so a legend grew to explain them: the magician Merlin was said to be entombed in a cave in Wales, lured there by a beautiful nymph he fell in love with – along with a band of accompanying butterflies – and this is one!