Artist's impression of Bohemolichas, a species of extinct trilobite as it feeds on the sea floor (Jiri Svoboda)
CBC Radio's Quirks and Quarks show has a segment about a trilobite's last meal. The trilobite specimen, Bohemolichas incola, was found in a 465 million year old (Ordovician Period) shale deposit.
A 465 million year old trilobite fossil with remarkably preserved gut contents reveals for the first time what these extinct arthropods ate. Per Ahlberg, a paleontologist at Uppsala University in Sweden found hundreds of shell fragments from a variety of animals crushed up in the digestive tract. The research suggests this three centimetre long trilobite ate indiscriminately as it moved along the sea floor. His study was published in Nature.
More information here on Science Alert.
The complete Bohemolichas incola trilobite was preserved in fine 3D details within encasing siliceous pebbles called Rokycany Balls. Inside this specimen's staggering 465 million-year-old digestive system paleontologist Petr Kraft from Charles University in the Czech Republic and colleagues found tightly packed fragments of shell.
The shells did not show signs of being dissolved with their sharp edges still intact, suggesting the trilobite's digestive system isn't acidic but rather neutral or basic along its entire length, the researchers explain. This is how modern crustaceans and spiders do their digesting too – animals belonging to the two different modern groups in contention for the closest trilobite relatives.
Almost the entire digestive tract was packed full, with some fragments still large enough to be identified. Those bits and bobs of trilobite prey all belong to benthic invertebrates that dwelled at the bottom of the sea during the Ordovician.
This story was suggested by a few ESCONI members, thanks for sending it in!
