NINE mysterious deaths around 500 million years ago have led to the arrival of one of the most fascinatingly fossils at a Birmingham store.

Adrian Edwards, owner of Mirrorstone Crystals in Kings Heath, said he hopes to sell the latest fossil he has picked up for more than £10,000.

It shows no less than nine well-preserved trilobites – a fossil group of extinct marine creatures – whose lives in the Cambrian seas came to an end.

What killed them off will never be known but their remains leave behind evidence of how they once lived.

The slabs, which have been brought across from Morocco, are expected to sell for between £8,000 and £10,000 at auctions later this year.

Mr Edwards said they are very clear – although what happened to create the fossil in the first place is less clear.

He said: “You can see the different specimens arranged in the slab perfectly. There is no damage to them and they think the most likely reason is some kind of poisoning.’’