Product Description
From a 30+ year collection from France comes this extraordinarily rare shrimp fossil loaded with so many desirable features. It comes from the south of France from a Middle Jurassic deposit. This piece shows an MONSTER-SIZE fossil of the extinct shrimp, Antrimpos kiliani, in an unusual state of WHITE preservation on the red stone. Surrounding the shrimp are BLACK brittle star fossils of the taxon Ophiurina. There's even small bivalve fossils scattered about. With the red rock showing white and black fossils, this makes for an extremely aesthetic specimen but too, it is very rare, especially for the sheer size of the shrimp. The rock is unbroken and the specimen is 100% GENUINE, ORIGINAL AND WITH NO RESTORATION OR REPAIR. This species of shrimp from the Jurassic, is mostly found in sizes around 2 inches in length. Lengths of four inches are not common but at NEARLY SEVEN INCHES, this is an ENORMOUS example.
HISTORY
Antrimpos is an extinct member of the diverse group of arthropods called DECAPODA. Decapods comprise lobster, shrimp, prawns and crabs. The majority of Solnhofen crustaceans are decapods. Of all Solnhofen decapod fossils, shrimp such as Aeger, are the most common and abundant. The Antrimpos shrimp is an extinct species of predatory marine crustacean. These marine creatures died out at the end of the Cretaceous Period.
Lobster, shrimp and prawns all possess an elongated, segmented body with a flexible carapace covering the thorax and head. Other basic traits are the presence of multiple pairs of limbs and a fan-like tail. Because of the lightness and loose articulation of a decapod's carapace, intact preservation of the entire creature is quite rare and the abundance of the animal in the fossil layers is most often represented by partial or poorly preserved specimens.