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Identify a specimen... Trilobite Trilobita

Trilobites are among the most beautiful and fascinating creatures ever to have lived. They were arthropods, members of a group shared by crabs, spiders and insects and could be found in the seas from the Cambrian through to the mass extinction at the end of the Permian.

A trilobite had a hard carapace, divided by scientists into the head-shield (cephalon), the body section (thorax) and tail section (pygidium). In the centre of the cephalon is a lobe called the glabella.

Although the earliest trilobites were blind, some of their descendants evolved compound eyes - probably the first species to do so.

Find out more about them here (external source)

 

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