Learn about a giant species of “Trilobite” 540 million years ago

Trilobites are one of the most common fossils in the world.

They are one of the earliest known arthropod groupings, and they can tell us a lot about how life developed hundreds of millions of years ago.

So, without further ado, here are some facts about everyone’s favorite fossil.

From the Lower Cambrian (521 million years ago) to the beginning of the Mesozoic, they thrived for about 300 million years (250 million years ago).

That indicates they lived hundreds of millions of years before the Jurassic period, when dinosaurs ruled the Earth.

Trilobites are extinct arthropods, and some of the oldest. They are related to modern lobsters and spiders.

They lived in seawater, however only a few of them could swim.

Many of them burrowed or crawled around on the muddy sea floor. They were the first animals to have sophisticated eyes.

Their fossilized bones have been discovered on every continent, demonstrating that they thrived in all areas and climates.

They, like many modern arthropods, had a segmented exoskeleton.

When threatened, they almost definitely rolled up into a ball, and certain exoskeletons were covered in spines and bumps for further protection (or perhaps reproductive purposes).

They molted as well, as do many current arthropods. This means they shed their exoskeleton as they grew.

They greatly varied in size, from less than 1 cm to over 70 cm.

They’re called ‘trilobites’ because their body could be split into three parts both longitudinally and axially.

There are 10 “Orders” of trilobites featuriпg over 20,000 recogпized species.

Trilobite fossils have been studied and understood so well that several species are now used to date geological levels.

Some trilobite fossils show signs of predation so something definitely ate them.

They lived in a variety of ways: some moved over the seafloor as predators, scavengers, or filter feeders, while others swam and dined on plankton.

Some trilobite species may have formed symbiotic relationships with sulfur-eating bacteria to obtain food.

They survived many extinction events, which is not surprising given their existence for about 300 million years.

Despite this, trilobites maintained a high degree of diversity throughout their lifespan, until dying out at the end of the Permian.

Trilobites were discovered in a wide variety of water depths in the marine paleoenvironment, from extremely shallow to very deep.

Most trilobite fossils are the remains of their shed exoskeletons, not the trilobite itself.

Trilobite collecting has a lengthy history. Trilobite fossils reaching back more than 50,000 years have been discovered in burial grounds.

Niles Eldredge’s study of Paleozoic trilobites on the Welsh-English border was crucial in establishing the theory of evolution.

The cephalon, or head part, of a trilobite exhibits amazing intricacy for the time.

They had a single pair of antennae and biramous limbs that were otherwise undifferentiated.

Some species’ eyes contained hundreds of separate lenses. Despite this, other species were likely completely blind because they lived too deep below for light to reach them.

They had a toothless mouth that faced backwards, in front of their legs.

We’re not really sure where their heart, brain, and liver were situated.

Trilobites were eventually wiped off by the biggest extinction catastrophe in our planet’s history, which occurred 250 million years ago and resulted in the extinction of 90% of all species on the planet.