Acaste downingiae trilobites BIRUG 6132

An assemblage of small specimens of the Silurian trilobite *Acaste downingiae* from the Wenlock Limestone of Dudley, UK (433–427 million years ago). This fossil is unusual due to the high number of similarly sized individuals of the same species all preserved tightly together. This may indicate that they all died at the same time; their irregular orientations, the fact that many are enrolled (curled-up) into a defensive ball and seemingly no evidence of predation could suggest an underwater landslide. This specimen is part of the Museum’s Ketley Collection and was digitised using an Artec Spider 3D scanner by Amir Rahman.