Chelicerates and

Trilobites
Subphylum Chelicerates
 General Characteristics
• Chelicerates (Chelicerata) are a group of arthropods that includes
scorpions, mites, spiders, horseshoe crabs, sea spiders, and ticks.
• Characterize by the presence of chelicerae a modified as pincer-like
claws (fangs) found on the mouth area.
• First evolved about 500 million years ago.
• There are about 77,000 living species of chelicerates.
• Chelicerates have two body segments (cephalothorax and abdomen)
and six pairs of appendages (parts attached to the body).
• Four pairs of appendages are used for walking and two (the
chelicerae and the pedipalps) are used as mouthparts.
• Chelicerates have no mandibles and no antennae.
Chelicerates are divided into the following
taxonomic groups:

• Merostomata (Horseshoe crabs)

• Pycnogonida (Sea spiders)

• Arachnids (Spiders, Scorpion,

Ticks and Mites)
 Horseshoe Crabs (Merostomata)

• There are five species of horseshoe crabs alive today.

• Members of this group live in shallow marine waters along the
Atlantic coast of North America and in some parts of Asia.
• Horseshoe crabs are an ancient group of chelicerates that dates
to the Cambrian Period.
• Horseshoe crabs have a distinct and unsegmented carapace
(hard dorsal shell) and a long telson (a spine-like tailpiece).
 Chelicerae

(Cephalothorax)

(Abdomen)

Anterior (or ventral) Posterior (or dorsal)

Cephalothorax is the fused head and thorax

• Horseshoe crab blood is bright blue.
• It contains important immune cells that
are exceptionally sensitive to toxic
bacteria. When those cells meet
invading bacteria, they clot around it
and protect the rest of the horseshoe
crab's body from toxins.
 Sea Spiders (Pycnogonida)
• There are about 1300 species of sea spiders alive today.
• Members of this group have four pairs of very thin walking legs,
a small abdomen, and elongated cephalothorax.
• Sea spiders are marine arthropods that feed on nutrients of
other soft-bodied marine invertebrates.
• Sea spiders have a proboscis (elongated or extensible tubular
organ of the oral region) that enables them to obtain food from
prey.
 Arachnids (Arachnida)
• There are more than 80,000 species of arachnids alive today
(scientists estimate that there might be more than 100,00 living
species).
• Members of this group include spiders, scorpions, whip scorpions,
ticks, mites and pseudoscorpions.
• Most arachnids feed on insects and other small invertebrates.
Arachnids kill their prey using their chelicerae and pedipalps.
• Arachnids also have two additional pairs of appendages. The first
pair, the chelicerae, serve in feeding and defense. The next pair,
the pedipalps, help the organisms feed, move, and reproduce.
• Four pairs of legs (eight total).
 Eating Habit
• Members of this group are herbivores, detritivores, predators,
parasites and scavengers.
• Most chelicerates suck liquid food from their prey.
• Many chelicerates (such as scorpions and spiders) are unable to
eat solid food due to their narrow gut. Instead, they must expel
digestive enzymes onto their prey.
• The prey liquifies and they can then ingest the food.
 Reproduction
• Dioecious (male and female reproductive organs in separate
individuals)
• Oviparous (lay their eggs) with little or no other embryonic
development within the mother.
• Horseshoe crabs, which are aquatic, use external fertilization, in
other words the sperm and ova meet outside the parents' bodies.
• In most species fertilization is indirect. Male spiders use their
pedipalps as a syringe to "inject" sperm into the females'
reproductive openings, but most arachnids produce spermatophores
(packages of sperm) which the females take into their bodies.
Would you consider these animals as pets?
Class Trilobita
 General Characteristics
• Trilobite, any member of a group of extinct fossil arthropods
easily recognized by their distinctive three-lobed, three-
segmented form.
• Trilobites, exclusively marine animals, first appeared at the
beginning of the Cambrian Period, about 542 million years ago,
when they dominated the seas.
• Although they became less abundant in succeeding geologic
periods, a few forms persisted into the Permian Period, which
ended about 251 million years ago.
The geologic time scale is
the “calendar” for events in
Earth history. The geologic
time scale is divided into
eons, eras, periods, epochs
and ages.
• Trilobites had three body lobes, two of which lay on each side of
a longitudinal axial lobe.
• The trilobite body was segmented and divided into three regions
from head to tail: the cephalon, or head region, separated from
the thorax, which was followed in turn by the pygidium, or tail
region.
• Trilobites, like other arthropods, had an external skeleton,
called exoskeleton, composed of chitinous material.
• Each trilobite body segment bore a pair of jointed appendages.
• The forwardmost appendages were modified into sense and
feeding organs.
• Most trilobites had a pair of compound eyes; some of them,
however, were eyeless.
• Some trilobites were active predators, whereas others were
scavengers, and still others probably ate plankton.
• Some trilobites grew to large size; Paradoxides harlani, which
has been found near Boston in rocks of the Middle Cambrian
Epoch (521 million to 501 million years ago), grew to be more
than 45 cm (18 inches) in length and may have weighed as much
as 4.5 kg (10 pounds).
 Extinction
• Exactly why the trilobites became extinct is not clear.
• A research published by a Michigan State University
paleontologist suggests that an inconsistent molting style,
coupled with inefficient physiology, contributed to the demise of
these prehistoric arthropods.