TRILOBITES

Trilobites were hard-shelled marine creatures that existed over 520 million years ago. Nowadays, all trilobites are fossils, and they can be found mineralized in rock of all continents. An old class of Arthropods, trilobites are characterized by three body parts (Cephalon, Thorax and Pygidium - head, thorax and tail). This huge group flourished in an extremely diverse range of forms, sizes and shapes, since the Permian to the Silurian. Nevertheless, they were the absolute stars of the Paleozoic Era, dominating the seas. After the age of trilobites, it began the age of insects, in the evolutionary timeline.

Not so well known as Dinosaurs, trilobites are very appreciated among paleontologists, collectors and curious public in general, mainly due to the bizarre and diverse forms and displays in which they are found. Very famous are the mortality tables, the funnel orientated head to tail lines of specimens, the giant trilobites from Portugal, Morocco and from the Burges Shale and, for sure, the most admirable spiny Devonian ones. There are more than 25.000 known species and more and more are discovered and described every year.