Other fossil arthropods
There were once lots of weird and wacky arthropods.
Many other arthropods, besides trilobites, have been seen in the fossil record and most of them are now extinct.
Sea-scorpions (eurypterids), lived mainly in coastal lagoons and freshwater, though some early forms lived in the sea. Related to spiders and scorpions, they were fierce predators that could grow up to two metres in length. They died out at the same time as the trilobites.
Horseshoe crabs are also related to spiders and scorpions. They have a large circular body, twelve legs and a long tail spine. They first appeared about 400 million years ago and became the "modern" shape about 250 million years ago. They can still can be found living in coastal waters in Asia and on the eastern shores of North America, and are sometimes referred to as living fossils.
If you compare the recent specimen with the fossil you can see that the horseshoe crab has hardly changed in 250 million years.
The arthropods are split into different groups. Here we will look at the trilobites, crustaceans, insects and other fossil arthropods.
Arthropods
Trilobites
Crustaceans
Insects
Other fossil arthropods
If you read these pages you should become an expert invertebrate identifier!
The major groups are listed below - select a link to learn more about this type of fossil.
Sponges
Corals
Molluscs
Brachiopods
Arthropods
Graptolites
Echinoderms
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