The Existence of Trilobites

Beginning in the 18th century, the concept of paleontology was established and was further developed in the 19th century. Paleontology is the study of prehistoric life, including organisms evolution and interactions with each other and the environment around them. Its also the study of past fossil records of past geological periods and relationships between ancient and modern day species. Although it is a field of biology, it has also been associated with geology because of the attempt to learn about the Earth itself, not just its organisms. This field tries to explain causes rather than observing effects by conducting experiments. The use of paleontology was and still is an extremely important aspect in identifying organisms from the Paleozoic Era, a time period in which extinction and evolution collided with each other, helping to shape the biological world we know today. The Paleozoic Era began about 542 million years ago and lasted for about 291 million years. It was divided into six parts known as the Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, and Permian. The oldest subdivision of the Paleozoic Era was the Cambrian period, which is also important to paleontologists because the rocks from this time are rich in fossils. During this period, evolution hit its peak, and for about 40 million years animal body plans were rapidly changing (Williams et al, 2007). Because of the sudden explosion of diversity during this period, it is sometimes referred to as the Cambrian radiation or Cambrian explosion. Many of the species that existed during this time period were marine organisms, mainly because at the beginning of the Cambrian period, life was entirely confined to the oceans. The evolution during this time period is described as a chain reaction which was triggered by plant life through a large-scale photosynthetic release of oxygen in the atmosphere. This was significant mainly because energy-releasing and oxygen-burning processes became available to the evolution of animal life (Levi-Setti, 1995). One of the more commonly known groups of organisms from this era is the trilobites, and although these organisms were fast to evolve and diversify, many other groups soon branched off. Other groups that existed during the Paleozoic era were brachiopods, mollusks, sponges, and echinoderms. Among the earliest arthropods to evolve, trilobites inhabited shallow Paleozoic seas more than 500 million years ago (Solomon et al, 2008). This paper will look at and investigate this generality in more detail in order to compare it to what research proves to be true today. The topic for this paper is proving how people know trilobites once existed five hundred million years ago, and what research has led up to this. Although the Paleozoic Era began more than 540 million years ago, trilobite history didnt begin until 520 million years ago. They were among the earliest arthropods to evolve, not to mention one of the quickest to evolve. During this short Cambrian period, several hundred genera and species succeeded each other very rapidly, although there is a total of over 5,000 discovered trilobite species. Trilobites generally lived on or around the sea floor and were almost never found inhabiting freshwater. Their sizes ranged from three to ten centimeters in length, and their body structure was covered by a hard, segmented exoskeleton. Their bodies were the shape of a flattened oval and were divided into three parts: the anterior head, also called the cephalon, which bear a pair of antennae and a pair of compound eyes, the thorax, and the posterior abdomen. Each segment had a pair of segmented biramous appendages (appendages with two jointed branches extending from the base). To go even further, each

appendage consisted of an inner walking leg and an outer branch with gills, as seen in Figure 1. The wide range of shapes suggests many ecological niches in the environment around them (Fortey, 2004). It is possible that some of these roles included acting as predators, scavengers, particle feeders, and filter feeders. An example of one of their roles is how these arthropods obtained food. They typically would roam the sea floor and filter the mud in order to acquire food. Another example of this is their role as predators. The majority of early trilobites are thought to have been predators of benthic invertebrates, which are backboneless organisms that inhabit the bottom of any body of water, such as lakes and streams (Gon III, 2008). As the Cambrian period progressed, these arthropods had to adapt to the way their environment was changing in order to survive and prevent extinction. As time progressed during the Cambrian period, many different species of trilobites arose. Two major groups are the Pelagic and the Parabarrandia. The Pelagic group of trilobites is thought to have been poorly streamlined, which could have resulted in slowing down swimming patterns. The Parabarrandia group on the other hand had a smoothed out profile, where the head end prolonged into an elongated nose. Their bodies were also modified into a hydrofoil shape, which most likely helped these arthropods to swim faster (Fortey, 2004). Branching off of these groups of trilobites, there are many others that during the Cambrian period made certain adaptations to the environment around them. For example, the trilobite known as Cryptolithus tesselatus created a filter-feeding chamber under its body to help with feeding. This specific trilobite would capture food particles in water currents that it generated with its legs. It is guessed that the currents may have exited the chamber through openings in its cephalon (the anterior head portion). Another example of how trilobites adapted during this time period is how certain groups formed brims around the front of their head. This brim was covered with small pits and linked by a fine canal to opposing pits arising from the dorsal surface. This brim also extended backwards into long spines along the thorax so it could rest on the sediment surface. One of the most notable ways trilobites adapted to their surroundings is involved with oxygen levels. A lot of times these organisms had to overcome areas with low oxygen. A way that trilobites adapted to this was by finding areas that contained rocks, such as sulfide-rich black shale and limestone. The rocks that were deposited in these areas are referred to as stink stones because of the odor they produce. Those belonging to the group of Olenidae had a thin exoskeleton in relation to their size. Their body structure often times helped them in dealing with low oxygen levels and tension. For example, they had feeble muscles and were sluggish bottom dwellers. They had wide and flat lateral areas and many thoracic segments. This allowed for the extension and multiplication of their gill branches. All of these features of their body structures evolved throughout the Cambrian period in order to cope with areas that have considerably low levels of oxygen. One last example of how trilobites deal with low oxygen is the symbiotic relationship they form with sulfur bacteria. The trilobites farm the bacteria for the oxygen, which also serves as a nutritious food source (Fortey, 2004). Although trilobites made many adaptations over time, the most notable one deals with their eyes. Trilobites are most notable for their eyes because of how their structures transformed as time progressed in order to meet the needs of the environment around them. Trilobite eyes are so intriguing to paleontologists today because they were able to see the immediate environment around them with the use of large composite eyes, which were the first use of optics coupled with sensory perception in nature (Levi-Setti, 1995). Many different forms of eyes evolved over time due to the different habitats trilobites lived in, but all eyes had several things in common. For example, eyes are often made of soft

tissues, but not in trilobites. The eyes of these arthropods were made of calcite. Their eyes were also capable of seeing accurately over long distances since the optical nerves were parallel to each other (Fortey, 2004). However there are more differences in the types of eyes mainly due to location. The three major types that developed are known as holochroal lenses, schizochroal lenses, and abathochroal lenses, as seen in Figure 2. The abathochroal lenses were tiny but slightly separated from each other. Each lens has had its own external calcite membrane, and because of this these were the earliest of trilobite eyes to appear on fossil record (Clarkson et al, 2006). The holochroal type had many continuous lenses, which were tiny and similar size throughout the eye. The lenses are said to be the shapes of tiny hexagons. These lenses were set on a kidney-shaped visual surface and most likely contributed to giving trilobites an angular range of vision. Since their visual fields were more highly curved vertically, this caused their angular range of vision toward both pole directions (Clarkson et al, 2006). This feature became very important to trilobites mainly because it allowed them to look over the sediment surface on which bottom-dwelling animals lived, being able to look out for prey and predators. Most trilobites were adapted for this type of eye structure, but others that didnt fit the category of having this eye structure or abathochroal lenses had schizochroal lenses. These eyes had fewer, but larger lenses that were separated by an interlensar cuticle, also known as baffles. These eyes also had a lateral field of view, but had a very sophisticated structure as well. Their eyes had internal variations in their refractive index to correct any optical problems that occurred within the eye. (Clarkson et al, 2006). Although these were the three main types of trilobite eyes (holochroal, schizochroal, and abathochroal), there were also certain distinctions that did not fit into these categories. For example, certain trilobites that lived closer to the waters surface had eyes that became enlarged over time. This is because they were exposed to more light, and therefore their eyes became used to seeing in brighter areas. This adaptation resulted in trilobites having a better field of view, almost 360 degrees of vision. Other trilobites that lived in deeper areas of water secondarily lost their eyes, meaning that they were once functioning before loss. This is because they lived at considerable depths below the photic (sunlight) zone (Fortey, 2004). Here little to no sunlight could be seen, so eyes became redundant. Their loss of vision was progressive until the lenses became completely sealed over, and after this occurred, eyesight was never regained. After almost 300 million years of existence on the planet, trilobites unfortunately became extinct. Trilobites died out about 270 million years ago, and the major reason for this was the major Hirnantian glaciations towards the end of the Ordovician period. These glaciations forced extinction on over 95 percent of all species in the Earths oceans (Fortey, 2004). The specialized characteristics that trilobites gained over time became very useful in studying their fossils many years after their extinction. Their fossils consist of small shelly fossils, phosphatic tubes, coiled shells, and expanding shells. These shapes are easy to identify due to the fact that trilobites were the first arthropods to secrete hard exoskeletons made of the mineral calcite (Fortey, 2004). Trilobites have this feature because when they first appeared in the Cambrian period, they learned how to metabolize calcium for building sturdy shields (Levi-Setti, 1995). Only the dorsal surfaces became covered in a protective shield, which was tucked around the edges of the animal in a fold called the doublure. However, scientists dont have a lot of information on the limbs of trilobites because they never became calcified, and therefore not many fossilized legs have been found. There have been cases

where limbs have been preserved, but this is usually because they were coated with a mineral such as iron pyrite or apatite before they had a chance to decay (Williams et al, 2007). One of the most distinctive features in identifying fossils is their paired compound eyes, mainly because of how they sealed over in calcite, either when losing them or after death. Everything that is known about their eyes is based on the visual surface because of the calcified lenses. Almost nothing is preserved of the inner structure because it decays after death. Trilobites also have strong spiny bases, which may have been employed in shredding soft-bodied worms and other prey. This also shows that these arthropods had an important role as predators and scavengers. Proof that trilobites filled the niche of being prey is the bite marks found of their fossils. Most of the time these bite marks were not fatal. The widespread abundance of trilobites is evident today due to their remains in layers of sedimentary rock. Since there is the presence of particular genera in the layers, trilobites are very important index fossils. The presence of identical forms in rocks of the same age and composition on location (now separated by oceans) is evidence that the continents drifted on the Earths crust (Levi-Setti). Two of the most important fossil sites that document trilobites in this era are the Chengjiang site in China, which is more notable for uncovering fossils from the early Cambrian period, and the Burgess Shale site in British Columbia, which uncovers fossils more from the middle-Cambrian period. However, a new site recently became famous for finding trilobite fossils. In October of 2000, Canadian paleontologists discovered the largest trilobite fossil yet in the ancient tropical coasts of what is now Manitoba, Canada. The only portion left of the fossil was the rear tail shield. Although trilobites were usually three to ten centimeters in length, this fossil was guessed to be about 72 centimeters in length. This fossil is currently on display in the Manitoba Museum of Man and Nature in Winnipeg (Giant trilobite discovered, 2000). Throughout history, many new discoveries have been made and have impacted the world around us in many ways. A very important example of this is the discovery of trilobites. Although trilobites existed over five hundred million years ago and have been extinct for almost three hundred million years, the remnants left behind by them tell paleontologists today a lot about the way they lived and how they adapted. With the understanding and capability to delve deeper into the meaning of a fossil, paleontologists can now attempt to unravel the unknown from past time periods. The ability to examine a fossil using calcite remains and DNA has improved throughout history due to our advances in technology and the knowledge gained from past discoveries. Conclusions can finally be drawn and proved about the existence of trilobites. What we know today about trilobites is published throughout the world, revealing their lifestyles, eating and reproduction patterns, relatives to this species, and how they managed to adapt to the environment around them. The mystery of the trilobite has finally filled a missing chapter in the novel to the Earths history.

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