Extraordinary trilobite collected by František Pošepný discovered after 140 years

Abstract

This paper examines a well-preserved articulated thorax of a large middle Cambrian paradoxidid trilobite. This extraordinary specimen was collected by the famous geologist František Pošepný during an excursion to the Hřebeny mountain range, Czech Republic, in the 1890s, and was thought to have been lost for nearly 140 years. The trilobite originates from the Brdlavka locality, one of the easternmost outcrops of the Jince Formation. The recent discovery of this fossil in the Geological Pavilion of the Technical University of Ostrava, Czech Republic, enabled its photographic documentation and assignment to the common species Paradoxides (Hydrocephalus) minor (Boeck, 1827). This species confirms the occurrence of the middle levels of the middle Cambrian Jince Formation at the Brdlavka locality, where the trilobite was collected.