Trilobite Fossil

Trilobites are a class of extinct marine creatures that lived in shallow waters. Thanks to their easily fossilized exoskeletons, we now have a very extensive history of these creatures. We know of about 17,000 species which lived from 521 million years ago until the Permian-Triassic extinction event 252 million years ago. That’s 270 million years! For comparison, that’s about 100x longer than the fossil record of the human genus. This specimen is of the genus Flexicalymene which lived between 425–500 million years ago. In fact, the dinosaurs lived closer in time to us than to these trilobites. Trilobites were one of the most successful animals to ever live on Earth. They survived numerous mass extinctions and lived until the end of the Paleozoic age. Fossils measure ~3" long. Images are a representation of the specimens available, with larger pieces given priority.