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What are Trilobites?

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What are Trilobites?

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Trilobites are an extinct group of arthropods (jointed-legged animals) known from more than 10,000 fossil species. The group Trilobita existed from early in the Cambrian Period (520 million years ago) until the end of the Permian Period (250 million years ago). The name Trilobita is derived from the three (tri-) lobed structure of the exoskeleton, which has a raised central lobe (or axis) and a pair of side lobes, called pleurae. The trilobite body is also divided lengthwise into three regions or tagmata: a head or cephalon, a middle region (thorax) composed of several to many articulated segments, and a tail plate called a pygidium, which consists of fused segments.

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Trilobites are members of the phylum Arthropoda (jointed-foot animals). Arthropods have segmented bodies and appendages covered by an exoskeleton which provides support and protection for muscles and organs. Living Arthropods include insects, spiders, scorpions, ticks, crabs, lobsters, barnacles, and centipedes. Trilobites belong to an extinct class of marine organisms called Trilobita. This name refers to the three-part (tri-lobes) latitudinal and longitudinal shape of a trilobite’s exoskeleton. The latitudinal lobes consist of the cephalon (head), segmented thorax (body), and pygidium (tail); the longitudinal lobes consist of two lateral lobes (on each side of the body) and an axial lobe (central back area of the exoskeleton).

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Trilobites are remarkable, hard-shelled, segmented creatures that existed over 300 million years ago in the Earth’s ancient seas. They went extinct before dinosaurs even came into existence, and are one of the key signature creatures of the Paleozoic Era, the first era to exhibit a proliferation of the complex life-forms that established the foundation of life as it is today. Although dinosaurs are the most well-known fossil life forms, trilobites are also a favorite among those familiar with Paleontology (the study of the development of life on Earth), and are found in the rocks of all continents. ANCIENT ARTHROPODS Trilobites were among the early arthropods, a phylum of hard-shelled creatures with multiple body segments and jointed legs (although the legs, antennae and other finer structures of trilobites only rarely are preserved). They constitute an extinct class of arthropods, the Trilobita, made up of ten orders, over 150 families, about 5,000 genera, and over 20,000 described sp

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First, they are one of the the Earth’s most successful life forms. Trilobites arose during the Cambrian Period. The Cambrian Period existed from about 570 MYA to somewhere between 490 and 505 MYA. (MYA = million years ago, hence 505 MYA is 505,000,000. If you consider a year being 365 days, i.e. rotations of the Earth, this means the Earth has turned 183,820,000,000 times since the end of the Cambrian Period). Trilobites are believed to have evolved about 543 MYA, during the Lower Cambrian Period. The last Trilobites died out about 248 MYA in the upper Permian Period. Therefore Trilobites lived for a period of about 295,000,000 years on the Earth. Let’s compare that with the existence of human kind (not just modern humans, what are called Cro-Magnon). The period of time which some form of human kind has been on the Earth keeps getting pushed back but it is currently believed to be something like 4 to 6 million years. Modern humans have been around for a much shorter time, arguably betw

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Trilobites are hard-shelled, segmented creatures that existed over 300 million years ago in the Earth’s ancient seas. They went extinct before dinosaurs even existed, and are one of the key signature creatures of the Paleozoic Era, the first era to exhibit a proliferation of the complex life-forms that established the foundation of life as it is today. Although dinosaurs are the most well-known fossil life forms, trilobites are also a favorite among those familiar with Paleontology (the study of the development of life on Earth). ANCIENT ARTHROPODS Trilobites were among the first of the arthropods, a phylum of hard-shelled creatures with multiple body segments and jointed legs (although the legs, antennae and other finer structures of trilobites only rarely are preserved). They constitute an extinct class of arthropods, the Trilobita, made up of nine* orders, over 150 families, about 5000 genera, and over 15,000 described species. New species of trilobites are unearthed and described e

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