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Trilobites
Click here for more Trilobite Pictures
| Scientific Classification |
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Trilobites are an extinct group of arthropods (the same phylum
that contains insects, spiders, crustaceans such as crabs and lobsters,
centipedes, millipedes, etc.). They first appeared in the early Cambrian
period about 530 million years ago, were largely wiped out during the
late Devonian mass extinction about 364 million years ago, and finally
went completely extinct during the Permian-Triassic
mass extinction that took place 248 million years ago.
Trilobites are one of the most well-known
fossil groups,
and highly diverse, and are found in many different locations.
Over 17,000 species are known from
fossils,
which are usually just of the animal's exoskeleton, although
occasionally soft bodies are also found in
fossils.
The fact that Trilobites are so widespread and diverse, and that
they evolved rapidly over time, often allows their use as
"index fossils" - that is to say that rocks can be dated
based on the particular type of Trilobites found within them.
Ogygiopsis Klotzi, Fossil, Trilobite 50Mm Long with Small Fault Through It, Burgess Shale
Photographic Print
Waltham, Tony
Buy at AllPosters.com
During life, all Trilobites are believed to have been exclusively marine
organisms, although they do appear to have led many different lifestyles.
Trilobites lived in both shallow and deep water, and although most lived
in the seas, there is some evidence
(such as trace fossils) that some species may have been able to live in
freshwater.
Various different types of
Trilobites are believed to have been swimming plankton feeders,
predators, scavengers, and in some cases, to have even got their food
from symbiotic sulfur-eating bacteria.
One final interesting fact about Trilobites is that they are not thought to have been able to cross deep oceans.
Thus, the presence of two distinct types of Trilobites (as well two distinct types of
Graptolites) of
Trilobites in the rocks of Europe
and North America is suggestive that an ocean (known as the "Iapetus Ocean") once divided
the two continents.
The Iapetus Ocean is thought to have closed-up again when all the continents joined
together in the super-continent of Pangaea - when a new ocean (the Atlantic Ocean), separating
Europe and North America,
did subsequently form when Pangaea broke up, it did so along
a different line of separation.
Trilobites were arthropods that lived in the seas between 530 and 248 million years ago
Related Information & Resources
See Also
Trilobite Pictures and Posters
by AllPosters
Here are some Trilobite pictures and posters:
(Disclosure: Products details and descriptions provided by AllPosters. Our company may receive a payment if you purchase products from them after following a link from this website).
Trilobite Fossil
12" X 9"
Photographic Print
Artist: Tom Bean.
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Ordovician Isotelus Gigas Trilobite Fossil
12" X 9"
Photographic Print
Artist: Kevin Schafer.
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Trilobite Fossil
12" X 9"
Photographic Print
Artist: Tom Bean.
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Trilobite Fossil
12" X 9"
Photographic Print
Artist: Tom Bean.
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Close-Up of Trilobite Fossils (Calymene Breviceps)
12" X 16"
Photographic Print
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Trilobite Fossil from Morocco. Dicranurus Species
16" X 12"
Photographic Print
Artist: Darlyne A. Murawski.
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Trilobite Fossil, Ordovician, 473-476 M.Y.A., England
12" X 16"
Photographic Print
Artist: Ken Lucas.
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Trilobite Fossil (Niobides Armatus), Ordovician Period, 480 M.Y.A., Bolivia
16" X 12"
Photographic Print
Artist: Ken Lucas.
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Trilobite Fossil (Arctinurus Boltoni), Silurian, 400 M.Y.A., Middleport, New York
16" X 12"
Photographic Print
Artist: Ken Lucas.
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Trilobite Fossil (Homotelus Bromidensis), Ordovician Period, Criner Hills, Oklahoma
16" X 12"
Photographic Print
Artist: Ken Lucas.
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Stalk-Eyed Trilobite Fossil (Neoasaphus Kowalewskii), Odovician, 465 M.Y.A., Russia
16" X 12"
Photographic Print
Artist: Ken Lucas.
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Trilobite Fossil from Morroco, Dicranurus Species, Devonian Era, Arlington, Massachusetts, USA
16" X 12"
Photographic Print
Artist: Darlyne A. Murawski.
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Trilobite Books
Here are some books from Amazon.com:
Disclosure: Products details and descriptions provided by Amazon.com. Our company may receive a payment if you purchase products from them after following a link from this website.
By Richard Fortey
Vintage
Released: 2001-11-13
Paperback (320 pages)
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Click Here | Product Description:
With Trilobite, Richard Fortey, paleontologist and author of the acclaimed Life, offers a marvelously written, smart and compelling, accessible and witty scientific narrative of the most ubiquitous of fossil creatures.
Trilobites were shelled animals that lived in the oceans over five hundred million years ago. As bewilderingly diverse then as the beetle is today, they survived in the arctic or the tropics, were spiky or smooth, were large as lobsters or small as fleas. And because they flourished for three hundred million years, they can be used to glimpse a less evolved world of ancient continents and vanished oceans. Erudite and entertaining, this book is a uniquely exuberant homage to a fabulously singular species. |
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By Riccardo Levi-Setti
University Of Chicago Press
Paperback (352 pages)
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Long before dinosaurs roamed the earth, there were trilobites—one of the most striking animals to populate prehistoric seas and whose fossils are favorites among collectors today. From the giant trilobites of Newfoundland to fascinating new specimens from Morocco, Levi-Setti's magnificent book brings these "butterflies of the sea" to life for everyone curious about our remote past
This second edition features coverage of a greater variety of trilobites, an improved photographic atlas reorganized to present their evolutionary progression, and over 200 photographs. |
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By Jasper Burns
Miller's Fossils
Paperback (91 pages)
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A survey of representative trilobite species from North America. It includes meticulous line drawings of 42 species, with information for each concerning classification, geologic range, and geographical distribution. Descriptions of probable life style, similar species, interesting features, etc. are also given. The 8 page, illustrated Introduction includes discussions of trilobite anatomy, growth, vision, lifestyles, locomotion, feeding, classification, and extinction. A brief "suggested Reading" list is also offered. |
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By Richard Fortey
Vintage
Released: 1999-09-07
Paperback (400 pages)
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A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice
"Extraordinary. . . . Anyone with the slightest interest in biology should read this book."--The New York Times Book Review
"A marvelous museum of the past four billion years on earth--capacious, jammed with treasures, full of learning and wide-eyed wonder."--The Boston Globe
From its origins on the still-forming planet to the recent emergence of Homo sapiens--one of the world's leading paleontologists offers an absorbing account of how and why life on earth developed as it did. Interlacing the tale of his own adventures in the field with vivid descriptions of creatures who emerged and disappeared in the long march of geologic time, Richard Fortey sheds light upon a fascinating array of evolutionary wonders, mysteries, and debates. Brimming with wit, literary style, and the joy of discovery, this is an indispensable book that will delight the general reader and the scientist alike.
"A drama bolder and more sweeping than Gone with the Wind . . . a pleasure to read."--Science
"A beautifully written and structured work . . . packed with lucid expositions of science."--Natural History |
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By Richard Fortey
Knopf
Released: 2012-04-10
Hardcover (352 pages)
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From one of the world’s leading natural scientists and the acclaimed author of Trilobite!, Life: A Natural History of Four Billion Years of Life on Earth and Dry Storeroom No. 1 comes a fascinating chronicle of life’s history told not through the fossil record but through the stories of organisms that have survived, almost unchanged, throughout time. Evolution, it seems, has not completely obliterated its tracks as more advanced organisms have evolved; the history of life on earth is far older—and odder—than many of us realize.
Scattered across the globe, these remarkable plants and animals continue to mark seminal events in geological time. From a moonlit beach in Delaware, where the hardy horseshoe crab shuffles its way to a frenzy of mass mating just as it did 450 million years ago, to the dense rainforests of New Zealand, where the elusive, unprepossessing velvet worm has burrowed deep into rotting timber since before the breakup of the ancient supercontinent, to a stretch of Australian coastline with stromatolite formations that bear witness to the Precambrian dawn, the existence of these survivors offers us a tantalizing glimpse of pivotal points in evolutionary history. These are not “living fossils” but rather a handful of tenacious creatures of days long gone.
Written in buoyant, sparkling prose, Horseshoe Crabs and Velvet Worms is a marvelously captivating exploration of the world’s old-timers combining the very best of science writing with an explorer’s sense of adventure and wonder. |
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By George P. Hansen
iUniverse
Paperback (404 pages)
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A photographic guide to Oklahoma¿s Devonian trilobites. The geological history of Coal County, Oklahoma. Descriptions of rock formations where trilobites are found. Excavation and restoration of trilobites. A photographic atlas of the Lower Devonian trilobites of Oklahoma, with helpful information to aid in their identification. Trilobites are a well-known fossil group, possibly second most famous only to dinosaurs. With their easily fossilized exoskeleton, they left an extensive and diverse fossil record. They began a drawn-out decline to extinction during Late Devonian time, when all but one of the trilobite orders died out. This meticulously researched reference guide is a photographic atlas and descriptive compendium on the trilobites of Coal County, Oklahoma. The species described lived during the Lower Devonian in a shallow tropical ocean that had advanced over the landscape of North America. More than twenty species are exquisitely preserved in Oklahoma¿s limestone rocks. Each species is carefully illustrated, including thorough descriptions, so that those familiar and unfamiliar can understand and appreciate these amazing creatures. The most current scientific research on these trilobites is also included. For those wishing to pursue a deeper interest in trilobites, a comprehensive bibliography lists hundreds of sources of information for further study. |
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By Donald G. Mikulic; Ed Landing and Joanne Kluessendorf
New York State Museum
Released: 2007-02-20
Paperback (248 pages)
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Fabulous Fossils is a timely and significant contribution to evolutionary paleontology. It details humanity s interest and developing understanding of trilobites from the recovery of these fossils at 15,000 year-old Paleolithic sites, to the 18th century appreciation that they were arthropod fossils. This volume details the development of modern trilobite research in Australia and a number of American, European, and Asian countries. |
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By Kaja Foglio & Cheyenne Wright
Studio Foglio
Paperback (160 pages)
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The climax to the second Girl Genius story arc. The Wulfenbachs discover that Agatha is still alive and come to get her. Things are complicated by the fact that Agatha is currently possessed by the evil mastermind responsible for the Long War. A issue chock full of daring-do, political intrigue, and plumbers. |
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By Thomas E. Whiteley & Carlton E. Brett
Comstock Publishing Associates
Hardcover (400 pages)
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"Trilobites are the most lifelike of fossils-many well-preserved specimens belie their great antiquity and seem almost ready to arch their bodies, peer about with their compound eyes, and crawl forward as if to complete a journey that was interrupted hundreds of millions of years ago."-from the Foreword"New York State is and has long been a magnet for trilobite hunters. . . . New York's trilobites were among the first illustrated fossils in North America. . . . Many outstanding localities in New York State, from the majestic Ordovician limestone bluffs of Trenton Falls, to the Silurian beds in the great gorge of Niagara River, to the Devonian shale cliffs of Lake Erie, continue to yield abundant and spectacular trilobite fossils. New York strata have also yielded more trilobites with preserved appendages and other "soft parts" than almost any other region of the world. . . . Spectacular, ornate trilobites from New York ranging from a few millimeters to nearly a half meter in length, are featured in museums all over the world."-from the PrefaceThis superbly illustrated book reviews the trilobite fossils found throughout New York State, including their biology, methods of taphonomy (preservation of specimens), and the broader Paleozoic geology of the state. A general chapter on the geology of New York State places the importance of these now-extinct invertebrate marine animals into context. Sixty-seven line drawings and 175 black-and-white photographs illustrate individual species, many represented here by type specimens, and display the eerie beauty that has made New York State trilobites favorites of collectors the world over. |
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By Heff Munson
Released: 2011-06-30
Kindle Edition (342 pages)
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A romp of a first novel, just for fun. Surreal and self-referential light reading. |
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