| P number: | P550302 |
|---|---|
| Caption: | Protolloydolithus, a blind Trinucleid trilobite. |
| Description: | Protolloydolithus is a trilobite that lived in deep water on the muddy sea floor where light levels were low. This trilobite is blind - it had no eyes. It is found in Ordovician shales (Llanvirn-early Landeilo) of England and Wales and is about 462-470 million years old. Although Protolloydolithus was blind, fossils have a series of pits around the head which were possibly sensory organs. The glabella (the central lobe of the head) is large and the cheeks each side are inflated. The thorax (body), which is quite small compared to the head, has six segments. The tail is broad and rounded giving the animal an ovoid appearance. Trilobites were arthropods, distant relatives of crustaceans and insect that live today. They lived in the seas of the early Cambrian and they became extinct with the mass extinction at the end of the Permian times. Trilobites are divided into three parts, the cephalon (the head, which is divided into the central glabella with two cheeks each side); the thorax (body, also divided into three and comprising a number of segments); and the pygidium (the tail, also divided into three). These animals often had well developed eyes, with many lenses made of calcite crystals, although others were blind. Some trilobites swam, most scurried about on the sea floor and yet others burrowed in to the sand on the sea floor |
| Photographer: | Unknown |
| Copyright statement: | Unknown |
| Orientation: | Landscape |
| Size: | 424.30 KB; 1000 x 790 pixels; 85 x 67 mm (print at 300 DPI); 265 x 209 mm (screen at 96 DPI); |
| Average Rating: | Not yet rated |
| Categories: | Best of BGS Images/ Fossils |
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