2023-09-30 16:27:36
Feasting in the Ordovician: A trilobite of the species Bohemolichas incola in the middle of its favorite dishes. Image: Jiri Svoboda
What did trilobites eat? The stomach contents have now been identified in the fossilization of such a prehistoric animal. So they enjoyed seafood, although not necessarily fresh.
The trilobites died out 251 million years ago. Until then, marine arthropods were one of the most successful higher groups of organisms in Earth’s history. For over 270 million years they populated the oceans – mostly the light-flooded seabeds of coastal areas and marginal seas, but some also lived as plankton in the vastness of the high seas, others buried in the sand.
Ulf von Rauchhaupt
Editor in the “Science” department of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.
Their fossils can be found in sedimentary rocks on all continents and demonstrate enormous diversity. More than 20,000 species of trilobites have been scientifically described to date – and yet no one knew for sure what these animals ate.
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