Trilobites

[freethrow]

I have always been curious of life forms that came many millions of years before we (man) came along. The Trilobite was one of the earliest multi cell creatures to inhabit the oceans of the earth. Doing so during the time of roughly 540-490 million years ago. This was several million years before any life started to appear upon dry land.

What surprised me in this info I found today is that there were so many variants of the Trilobite. But after thinking a bit, it makes perfect sense that there were so many. Life does adapt, mutate and evolve and there were those millions of years to do so. :)

Take a look at some of these little guys. Several remind me of the Horseshoe Crab of today and that is because they are related. The horseshoe crab has evolved little in the last 350-400 million years though.

Trilobite Examples (more pages at bottom of link)

http://www.stonesbones.com/trmore6.htm


Horseshoe Crab of today

http://www.backyardnature.net/yucatan/hs_crab.htm

[VIIBanners]

I grew up on the Green River in S. Central KY and used to collect the fossils of these guys.I'd also find pieces of sponge, tube worms and3D impressions of sea shells in the limestone. They were everywhere in the rocky banksand sand bars.