Trilobites' Growth May Have Resembled That of Modern Marine Crustaceans
Published:01 Aug.2022 Source:University of British Columbia
Trilobites -- extinct marine arthropods that roamed the world's oceans from about 520 million years ago until they went extinct 250 million years ago, at the end of the Permian period -- may have grown in a similar fashion and reached ages that match those of extant crustaceans, a new study has found.
In a paper published in the journal Paleobiology, researchers from the University of British Columbia and Uppsala University show that the Ordovician trilobite Triarthrus eatoni, some 450 million years ago, reached a length of just above 4 cm in about 10 years, with a growth curve very similar to that of small, slow-growing crustaceans.