aplomado Posted June 11, 2015 Share Posted June 11, 2015 Do trilobites have living descendants? I don't know. It would seem sad if such a fantastic group does not... at least we still have birds to remind us of the dinosaurs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpc Posted June 11, 2015 Share Posted June 11, 2015 living relatives, yes. Descendants, nope. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted June 11, 2015 Share Posted June 11, 2015 I believe that the Horseshoe crab is the closest relative to the trilobites, but they are a very distant cousin at best. Tony Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys." Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough." My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection My favorite thread on TFF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted June 11, 2015 Share Posted June 11, 2015 The trilobite evolutionary line left no direct descendants; it is a bare branch waving in the wind. Consider how remarkable it is that the end of another branch of that same tree includes a species that is capable of lamenting their extinction! "There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley >Paleontology is an evolving science. >May your wonders never cease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fredalexander Posted June 21, 2015 Share Posted June 21, 2015 as stated above unfortunately, trolibites is a linage that ended with no living ancestor living today. the last of the species died out during the Permian extinction event i believe. it's a shame though, especially considering how successful and diverse these guys was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raggedy Man Posted June 21, 2015 Share Posted June 21, 2015 Unfortunately no, but evolution drives change and if we look hard enough we may see animals alive today that poses many of the features of trilobites. Here is just one example of this. Enjoy. This isn't a trilobite but one can imagine! 1 ...I'm back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tidgy's Dad Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 As has been said, the trilobites left no descendants, but have a living relative in the horseshoe crab. The larvae of horseshoe crabs bear such a close resemblance to their extinct cousins that they are known as trilobite larvae. http://www.arkive.org/horseshoe-crab/limulus-polyphemus/image-G9002.html as an example. beautiful. 1 Life's Good! Tortoise Friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FossilMo Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 It is very sad that such a magnificent species and such as Auspex stated, it is hard to imagine how such a diverse species goes extinct. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tidgy's Dad Posted July 13, 2015 Share Posted July 13, 2015 Lots of reasons for their decline and extinction, I think. Couple of mass extinction events hit them very hard and they suffered gradual declines in diversity and numbers through the later Paleozoic, possibly due to the rise of the fish, the increasing success of the shelled cephalopods and general changes in faunal assemblages. It wasn't a sudden cataclysm at all, there were few left by the end of the Permian and though that seems to have finished them off, they were probably headed that way anyhow. Life's Good! Tortoise Friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrangellian Posted July 27, 2015 Share Posted July 27, 2015 As has been said, the trilobites left no descendants, but have a living relative in the horseshoe crab. The larvae of horseshoe crabs bear such a close resemblance to their extinct cousins that they are known as trilobite larvae. http://www.arkive.org/horseshoe-crab/limulus-polyphemus/image-G9002.html as an example. beautiful. It looks like a Naraoiid! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eocenecarnage Posted July 28, 2015 Share Posted July 28, 2015 Sorry, but trilobites have NO living descendants or relatives. Although they are true Arthropoda, trilobites have no close relatives in the family. The closest relatives of trilobites were creatures from the Burgess and Wheeler Shales such as Anomalocaris and Marrela Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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