Trilobites are definitely rock stars in the fossil world , as well known and loved as the dinosaurs.
To make these earrings, I acid etched a trilobite design onto a piece of copper, cut it out and filed the edges. The copper was oxidized, forged and shaped. A patina highlights the etched area and it has a protective coating. These earrings are available in two sizes. The large trilobite body is one and one half inches high and one and one half inches wide across at the top. The small trilobite body is 1 1/8 inches long and 1 1/8 inches across the widest point. It comes with an informative label about the science behind the design. Each item is handmade and hand colored so there may be subtle variations from one to another. Each one is unique

TRILOBITES
From when they first appeared in the fossil record of the Cambrian age, to when they went extinct at the end of the Permian age, trilobites evolved into over 20,000 different species as they swam in every ancient ocean the world over for 300 million years.

This now extinct group of marine arthropods, Trilobites had immense diversity in terms of size (1cm – 70 cm), lifestyle (predators, scavengers, filter-feeders), shapes, and ornamentation. Trilobites were the first life forms to have compound eyes, with lenses made of calcite. Even through all their evolution they maintained the same basic body plan -the three vertical lobes or segments that divide their body lengthwise or tri-lobes give trilobites their name. This arrangement allowed some trilobites to roll up into a ball for protection from predators.

CRYPTOLITHUS
The distinctive rows of pits along the edge of the cephalon (head) of this order of trilobites gives it the nickname “lace collar trilobite”. It is a small (less than an inch) blind trilobite that lived during the Ordovician age. Cryptolithus was a bottom feeder, feeding on debris on the ocean floor. The pits along the cephalon were actually holes through which Cryptolithus would filter sediment searching for food