Trilobite 435 million years old Ordovican period Alnif, Morocco

The planet Earth formed 4,600 million years ago, with life present for at least 3,000 million years. One of the earliest known multi-cellular life forms was the trilobite. Trilobites are extinct arthropods from the Palaeozoic Era that lived in prehistoric oceans between 540 to 245 million years ago.

Trilobites are the earliest arthropods and are the first known fossils with eyes. They got their name from the three-lobed shape of the body. The segmented body allowed it to curl up for protection. A sea bottom animal, it would shed its skin as it grew larger. Some trilobites had compound eyes giving them 360o vision. There are over 10,000 species of trilobites known from the fossil record.

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