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Drotops megalomanicus
Family: Phacopidae
Era: Middle Devonian
Locality: Jbel Issoumour, Morocco
Size: Big! 3"-8"!
Drotops-1
It's one of those phacops ranas you see around the US, except huge! Look at the
glabellae (the big round nose with all the dots), I'd say the huge glabellae
indicates a big digestive track. So, this guy eats a lot. Probably really likes
meat, you can't get that big of vegetation and detritus alone! With those big
compound eyes, he probably had good site of the sea floor and found a lot of
good stuff to eat. Perhaps he even hunted?
As for armor, well, just look at him, he's like an armor plate. All those bumps
used to be fine minute spines. So when he rolled up he looked like a hedgehog.
Ya, these guys are among my favorites, they're like the tanks of the trilobite
world. Be sure to check out the details on the eyes in the thumbnail pics!
Oh, and why does this guy have his head off the matrix? Well I asked my
preparationist to try to look for the hyperstoma (mouth piece) under the head.
Ya, this guy is empty.
Drotops-2
Here's two of them together! Now what are they doing? Is it a mating dance
or something? Whatever they're doing, it's pretty neat. It's not often you get a
cluster of these guys together... now if I only had an example of one hunting
and gathering.
Check out those eyes! Compound faceted lenses. Amazing how evolution finds the
same features here and there.
And here's another one!
Drotops-3
This bugger was only recently added to my collection. In between the earlier
specimens in my collection and this one, there seems to have been a change in
the preparation techniques used by my Moroccan sources. Notice that there is a
much finer finish on this guy and much better details throughout... I checked,
and it's all natural, they're just taking much more time and using a better
needlepoint I think.
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