Some specifically well-preserved specimens have recently shown some intriguing new details about trilobites aside from being one of the most common creatures existing in the fossil record.
According to a New Atlas report, it turns out that these creatures were breathing oxygen through the use of their legs.
Trilobites, as described in trilobites.info, were prehistoric marine arthropods that had rounded heads and segmented bodies. They may have been among the most successful animals that lived, flourishing for roughly 270 million years.
That, together with their easily fossilized external shell, means these critters progressed in the fossil record in such lavishness that they can be picked up low-priced in museum gift shops.
'Fool's Gold'
In this field, there are lots of things known about trilobites, although numerous secrets still wait in the soft body parts that, according to experts, do not fossilize as well.
Nonetheless, a few unusual specimens have managed to capture what's described as "squishy bits" in attractive detail, and that's because of the medium in which the creatures were preserved. Such a medium is called pyrite, typically known as 'fool's gold.'
Researchers at the University of California, Riverside, used a CT scanner to map specimens in three dimensions at high-resolution quality.
The pyrite offers a starker difference between the animal itself and the rock surrounding it in the CT image, underscoring much finer detail compared to what can be usually seen.
According to an author of the study, Melany Hopkins, the 'fool's gold enabled them to see the fossil minus the need to do a lot of drilling, not to mention grinding away at the rock, covering the specimen.
This way, she added, they could get a vision that would even be difficult to see using a microscope, really tiny trilobite anatomical structures on the order of about 10 to 30 microns wide.
Never-Before-Seen Structures on the Trilobites' Legs
With such a clear device, the study authors could see never-before-seen structures on the trilobites' legs' upper sections.
These appeared a dreadful lot like its modern arthropod descendants' gills like lobsters and crags. They could even make out the way blood would have passed through the structures to deliver oxygen.
Up until this time, researchers have compared the trilobite leg's upper branch to the non-respiratory upper branch among crustaceans, although this particular study, according to Jin-Bo Hou, the lead researcher, presents for the first time that the upper branched was functioning as a gill.
The study helps fill out the understanding of these common creatures' evolution, what may have stimulated the booms, and busts of species diversity throughout history.
For example, most types of life known today got their beginning roughly 540 million years back, during an abrupt increase in evolutionary research known as the Cambrian explosion.
According to the study's co-author, Nigel Hughes, they have known this change theoretically must have been associated with an increase in oxygen since the trilobites require its presence.
However, Hughes explained, they have had a very slight ability to measure that. Meaning, this makes findings like these ones all more exciting.
The study entitled, 'The trilobite upper limb branch is a well-developed gill,' was published in the Science Advances journal.
Related facts about trilobites are shown on That's Interesting's YouTube video below:
Check out more news and information on Marine Arthropods on Science Times.
