Spectacular Bellacartwrightia Trilobite with Preserved Color Patterns

Description: This is a most unusual trilobite. Notice the pleasing café au lait color, and the regular darkened spots to the exoskeleton. These markings have been interpreted as the positions of internal muscle attachments. An alternative hypothesis is that the dark spots are actually preserved melanophores which could expand and contract, allowing the trilobite to change color as it moved about the seafloor surface much like the extant Plaice and Sole. Whatever the correct interpretation, these colors are of natural, rather than diagenic origin.

Reference: Paleontology Vol. 11, Part 4, 1968 pp 498-9.