Amazing trilobyte fossils

I was watching a David Attenborough program the other day on the origins of life on Earth. He visited a place in Morocco where some enterprising locals are grinding down a mountain of sandstone looking for trilobyte fossils which they clean up and sell, in some cases for thousands of dollars. These fossils are pretty small - easily fit in the palm of your hand - but the detail is amazing.

Click here to go see the original on the smithsonianmag's blog (click the image again when you get there - they have an enormous hi-res image). Here's some more for your viewing pleasure.

Wikipedia, of course, has a very nice page on trilobytes with some more nice photos, notably this one of an eye column. Apparently the lenses are calcite (yes, they had eyes made of rock - before they were fossilized).

Now that's cool.