The 'First Predator' video I mention at the end is not public yet, it is channel member-only for the time being, but it will come out for everyone next week (7/30)! ;D
I think they're adorable little creatures. 😢 I always feel incredibly sad thinking about them going extinct. To be fair, if they survived 300 million some odd years, thats a pretty good run.
When you are showing the orders over time, you really can see the end Devonian really did clear them all out, Ill have to go back and see any if your videos on the Devonian and its end. I cant rember what happened in any detail 😅. Great trilo video!
The trilobites survived perhaps 20 extinction events and deserve a mention, I agree. However, you and all your ancestors going back to the precambrian have survived ALL extinction events! Congratulation for that remarkable feat Geo girl!
It’s great to see young women who become geologists, as I did 40 years ago. It’s the profession with consistently the greatest job satisfaction. Trilobites are so handy as a quick guide for identifying rocks as Paleozoic at a glance.
Rachel: Other amazing survivors include the horseshoe crab Limulus (480 mya), the brachiopod Lingula (500 mya) and the cockroach (320 mya). I would not be surprised if the common cockroach is still scurrying about long after the demise of humanity. Love trilobites…my favorite invertebrate fossil next to ammonites. Thanks for keeping me current on trilobite longevity relative to past extinctions. As always, a splendid presentation!
@@nomdeguerre7265Name-of-War I agree completely. One COULD say that. Yet I think most have a soft spot, pardon the pun, for the three-sided sea bug. I'm still rootin' for 'em t'pull through!
"Man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much-the wheel, New York, wars and so on-whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man-for precisely the same reasons.” Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
We love trilobites too! My son and i found a bunch of molt pieces and a little whole one near our house from the Ordovician period. Theyre scuttling over brachiopods, and weaving burrowing between worm burrows.
I've always admired the Nautilus for surviving from the Triasic till present day! I hope they survive the next extinction event that we're gonna bring.
Excellent Video! Happily, I just found (and subscribed) to your channel. As part of our daily mental exercise, my 76-year-old mother and I love to watch science news, general science topics, history, and geography videos here on TH-cam. We focus a lot on Astronomy (as she was an astronomer before retirement), but we love the other sciences tremendously. I was an Electrical Engineer before retirement to take care of her. We love your work.
Trilobites are my favorite! These little guys are the only ones lived throughout the entire Paleozoic, they dominated the world much longer than dinosaurs did. Thank you again for sharing again, GeoGirl, I've watched many trilobite videos you posted. Hopefully more in the future! 👍👍👍🤜🤛🤝🤝
Hi Rachel ~ I love learning about these lesser extinction events, because they still effected Earth’s geologic history. As before, I knew some detail but you’ve added even more. What I tend to follow most are the events of the Younger-Dryas period, which I believe included’s the ending of Earth’s most recent Ice Age, and the Mega-Fauna Extinction. I tend to favor the impact hypothesis, though I’m certainly no expert on it. Maybe if you haven’t done so yet, maybe you could do a presentation about all extinctions that are currently known. Personally, I’d go all the back to the Great Oxidation Event. Yesterday I watched a video of the development of life during the Paleozoic Era. What was curious was that there was no mention of sharks at all. I thought that after they showed up in the Devonian, they were considered one of the world’s top ocean predators.
They did show up in the Devonian, but throughout the Paleozoic, it is my understanding that they remained relatively small and non-dominant (the apex predators of the rest of the paleozoic being placoderms mainly, and later in the mesozoic, marine reptiles). It wasn't until the Cenozoic that sharks really went crazy with size, diversity, and dominance. Actually this comment gave me a future video idea about sharks evolutionary history, since it is so interesting! Thanks ;D
@@GEOGIRL The future video about sharks would be wonderful. The NHSM just finished our yearly "Shark Fest" event, which is coordinated with Discoveries Shark Week. I took over 200 photos and when I get through editing, I'll share the link with you :)
@@georgefspicka5483 I do! :D I love giving talks (if that is not obvious lol) A lot of the 'live' talks I've given in recent years have been over zoom, but I am actually scheduled to go to Michigan in September for a seminar talk at Michigan Technicial University. I've done similar things at other universities, but I am not great at seeking them out, I just say yes when they ask me haha :)
Chances are they probably just got out competed by something because i doubt they were predated to extinction since a lot of sea creatures have similar defense strategies like hard armor, most of the time the problem isn't "can i crunch through a shell and eat that" but "is it worth it to do so".
Great video featuring my favourite fossil animals. I always learn something from these videos but this time my knowledge was increased unexpectedly,...twice. Firstly, I've never heard pull bugs being described as roly- polys ( obviously I've led an incredibly sheltered life ) and secondly (it's open to debate which is the more important discovery) Voldemort had something called Horcruxes , and this was not a fatal illness. Thanks. Really loved this.
@@rolloxra670 Haha. I didn't find any. I bought some from rock/mineral/gem trade days at a state park. This was over at least a decade. Others, more recently, I bought from a company that sells fossils online.
Thank you so much for this! I live in Lake Louise so the Burgess Shale is just a short drive away, there are so many trilobites all around where I live.
*Great Job* on these videos! I've been watching for months now and really like both the presentation and the content. Don't change a thing, just keep making great videos!
Very glad to find your presentations. Most every paleonerd likely started development upon seeing a picture of a trilobite, as well as some dinosaurs. My favorite tee shirt sported image of genus Elrathia(?) trilobite. This elicited comment from a cousin with a college degree, “What good is that?.” One reason I do not work in the family business. Dig those Phacops eyes!
It appears that GeoGirl is also PaleoBioGirl. Those time periods do me in as well. I'm always mixing up the Slobbovian with the Insegrievian. Cannot imagine why. If Trilobites had survived, they'd be featured in our Seafood Salads today -- with Roquefort Dressing.
They may have survived a lot of extinction events, true. But on the other hand, from their early burst in the Cambrian it’s really all downhill for them, kinda sad to watch. By the time the P/T event came around, they were basically a dead clade walking
I love this video! And who doesn't love trilobites? Lol, well, I got my daughter a really cool trilobite fossil, and she looked at it like, "What am I supposed to do with this?" I'm sure when she gets older she'll appreciate it more, haha.
LOL My dad gave me a trilobite fossil when I was younger and I also gave the same look! haha However, now I have fortunately grown to appreciate the trilobites ;)
LOL... I wanted to buy one at a curio store when I was a 5 or 6 year old kid, a nice partially pyrite one. My dad dismissively refused telling me I was stupid to want to waste money on a useless rock.
I think successful is open to interpretation. One could say they are species which have had no real evolutionary change for millions of years as they are perfect for the niche they fit (like crocodiles) and some might say we are the most successful. I have a hard time believing that crocodiles could ever achieve self actualization. I also believe that one day even our time will run out. Its very curious to ponder these things though. Trilobites are very cool and one of my favorite prehistoric creatures. Thank you for your video on them, I really enjoyed it!
I've always wondered how far apart trilobites and horseshoe crabs are in ancestry, body plan, and ecological niche. Are the similarities totally superficial and coincidental? Or do they have familial and/or lifestyle-specific reasons for ending up looking similar to us today?
In which paper is it mentioned that trilobites are replaced by other organisms that feed the same resource? I refer to the Early Carboniferous animals that likely replaced them and trilobites couldn't explore this niche anymore. Great video and discussio.
I like the book, and I like your take on it. That being said, molecular biology is also very interesting, and is an omitted part of this story, body plans, physiologies, adaptations transferred laterally to other groups might be of interest. There are organisms today that roll-up, that have interesting features (horse shoe crabs) and so on. A larger context post extinction is equally interesting as the extinction and fossil level one. Keep doing what you are doing, great content. Oh yes, I did dig out some Ollenelids myself, at a place where only hard shelled life is preserved. I do have a couple of interesting shales that may be contrary evidence. California...
You're not stupid. You are describing a lot of stuff in a short time, its easy to accidentally get a couple of things mixed up. I really like how you explain some things summed up in a way which is really informative.
I understand that trilobyte eye lenses were made of calcite and that this is unusual. Has that feature ever been repeated by any other creature? Mineral instead of protein optics?
this was a fun video, thanks as always lady -- i wish they were still around because they are pretty cool -- but i have a question -- aren't horseshoe crabs modern trilobites? or at least cousins? they sure look like them.
I like how most trilobites could roll into a ball to protect themselves. Sometimes a really spiky ball. I guess the evolution of animals with larger mouths, and then muscular jaws, made this survival strategy less effective. A rolled up trilobite was probably like a hard candy for some of the Silurian and Permian animals. Other strategies such as burrowing in the mud or just moving really faster were not obvious. Mud might not have been properly oxygenated. And the trilobite body plan doesn't give them the ability to swim fast enough.
Hallo, Were there any known Trilobyte sp that liked hydrothermal vents? That environment may not have changed much at all throughout al these extinction events. Do any fossils survive those kind of places?
Great Video. Don't know if they are teaching this in school (I'm old) anymore but for taxinomic order: Kings Plays Chess On Folding Glass Stools. Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genius, Species
If the Proetid genus had managed to successfully radiate into different genera and perhaps families, Rachel, do you think that the Trilobites could've served not only the Perms-Triassic extinction event but also the KT extinction event?
I don't think so, I think they were gone after the PT and if they survived that event I am thinking the were gone soon after in the Triassic. Keep in mind, the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods make up like 200 million years of Earth's history, so it was quite a long time from the Triassic to the KPg event ;)
Even if we don't have the Trilobites around we still have another relative to them around - the Isopoda that appeared about the same time the Trilobites went into decline. It's of course a challenging family tree there.
I figured they'd burrow their way into the wet sand just like sand crabs after a wave goes by on the beach . I loved those little burrowers and would try to dig them up as they burrowed for the creepy tickle feeling they'd create trying to burrow out of your fingers... It must of been like that back in the Devonian, except there were millions of them, and some of them were HUGE! They must have been successful because every kid I knew growing up that was even peripherally interested in fossils had a few trilobites stashed away somewhere.... I'm not sure how successful sand crabs are gonna be, because there were lots when I was a kid, but there's not as many these days AFAIK.... Interesting critters ... (NB: I know they're a much later development, not actually related, but it was an interesting fantasy...cheers!) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerita_analoga
I survived 21 mass extinction events but the trilobytes are cute or whatever. EDIT: That's really interesting about the biological-caused extinction events. I guess there was a time before genome repair and apoptosis evolved. idk when that was, but you get the idea.
I have a Geo Girl hat which looks great and I really like the fact that it's the right size for my head and doesn't need to be adjustable. But I can't quite bring myself to wear it in public because I'm more of a Geo Guy and not a Geo Girl. Any suggestions?
Its obvious to me, mass extinctions are regular and the timing probably can be described from the analysis of core drilling samples from around the world.
another piece of evidence for their success is just how many different animals convergently evolved to have similar body plans and fill similar ecological niches after trilobites went extinct
Since Trilobita is a Class-level clade, we should compare similar rankings - like trilobites versus mammals, not just humans. If we’re comparing Classes, then we might want to say gastropods have been more successful than trilobites, since they’ve lasted from the late Cambrian to the present, surviving almost every extinction in the Phanerozoic. But being a part of “Team Slug” just doesn’t sound appealing. So count me on Team Trilobite”!
Yea, I was going to go into a whole rant on how to compare at the same taxonomic level but then I just left it out cuz I felt it was too much hahaha ;) But that is a great point! I also agree that Team Slug just doesn't have the same ring to it ;)
@@GEOGIRL - And is that a cockroach emoji in the title?!? Trilobites get no respect! There are snails emojis 🐌, and insect emojis 🐜🪳, and dinosaur emojis 🦖, but no trilobites. Hey, that's what we need! A Geo Girl trilobite emoji!!!
There is a, probably inescapable, subjective bias to observation and theory. But that's not an entirely negative thing, as interest and wonder elicit investment. Fascination and wonder drive exploration. Passion has power as well a peril. Humans are driven by what they love, and that should probably never be condemned. Curiosity might best be encouraged in almost every case, no matter how odd, esoteric or irrelevant it might seem to some. It might be best to only inform sound exploration, and not at all what is explored. I would think children should be encouraged to enthusiastically explore, well and soundly, whatever interests them, however odd, strange, or irrelevant, it might seem to us. I would suggest that passion and interest are more valuable than whatever subject engenders them, and process, rather than purpose, the proper subject of guidance.
It's a pity these fascinating arthropods are no longer around, Rachel, if Trilobites were still extant would you have a pet Trilobite or two in a fish-tank?
@@GEOGIRL Talking about extant Trilobites, Rachel, it just occurred to me that a modern-day analogue could be created by genetically modifying the Horseshoe Crab (The closest living relative to Trilobites).
OMG I just realized I should've worn my Team Trilobites hat for this video lol, oh well, I'll just have to make another video about trilobites in the future haha ;)
It blew my mind when I realized, from another TH-cam channel, that trilobite fossils were around in the Mesozoic. I like to imagine there was a dinosaur who gathered some to build a nest and attract a female.
@@Hellbender8574 I am thinking sour gummies of various lifeforms of the time mixed in to the ice cream, and maybe like mango-lemon with some heat to it. Open to different flavors though.
@@Falkon303My son (who is an expert in both the paleontology and icecreamology disciplines) says: Cambrian Explosion should be more like an ice cream bar coated with chocolate shell, shaped like a trilobite, snail, anomalocaris, etc. Also straight nautiloids and tube worms could contain cookie-like ice cream cones. With different flavors of ice cream inside each animal, and maybe other bits inside to represent the "guts." The chocolate coated bars and cones would represent the new prevalence of exoskeletons and shells in Cambrian animals. And you get the experience of being a predator when you eat the animal-shaped bars.
I liked the picture or diagram of the ecological versatility zones. Also, your statement that you do not think humans will last 300 million years is sobering.
Some trilobites had poor vision, minimal eyes or even no eyes at all. Surviving in mud or in muddy water meant losing the large eyes or having smaller eyes with stalks. Good to hide from predators. But then if the conditions changed, re-evolving these big eyes might have been too much to ask.
I think humankind will be just fine. We are going more toward a hydrogen economy, which should allow for sufficient removal of carbon overburden. This upgrade will also create far greater tranches of wealth. Adaptations and longevity, provide important details for lessons learned and best practices. So, your videos provide essential food for thought. Trilobites are new to me, so I appreciate your portrayals and interpretations. As always, excellent insight.
Oh don't get me wrong, I think humankind will go on for a while longer, I just don't know about 300 million years, I mean that is a long time for any organism group haha, especially a single species like us homo sapiens ;) Thanks for the kind words, so glad you enjoyed it ;D
@@GEOGIRL Actually, I am more inclined to think that space based evolution would be a new stage, perhaps even prior to further branching along the sapiens course. But, then again I have always been an optimist. You display the best qualities of teachers. Keep pushing boundaries.
Just as a quick aside, the last time I met with that niece and her parents was before the Trump era. Once Trumpism kicked in then as a practical matter, visiting became more difficult because people of a certain non-Christian persuasion had a harder time crossing between the US and Canada.
If trilobites and isopods overlap in a period such as the carboniferous then I wonder if that Isopods may have just been trilobites under the same stresses as those found in modern pill bugs or even millipede pill bugs a convergent adaptation.
Maybe that's just stupid me, but I always think of wood lice when I see pictures of trilobite fossils. Maybe it's the same as hens remind me of little feathered tyrannosauruses, particularly when they get this greedy, hungry stare in their eyes. They might share their great, great great granddaddy, though-?
Haha I wish we could go back in time and see what exactly they did. But it's also important to note that although they survived all these events, that doesn't mean they all did. They still underwent many species extinctions and individual deaths during most of these events, it is just that the events didn't wipe them out completely and they were able to recover after most of the events even when they were hit hard. :)
@@MarkAhlquist Thank you! And keep 'em coming, I love joking commenters, you guys make me laugh so much! You honestly think of things that I wish I had said in the video lol ;)
Yep. Trilobite diversity is stunning. Their extinction when other animals are thriving is an interesting mystery. ... clearly the reduction of diversity sabotaged their diversification strategy. Thanks Trilobites and morning coffee.
No, beetles are (writing this before watching the video, opinion might change afterward. 😊) Edit: Ok, by longevity I have to give it to the trilobites, but by diversity the beetles are still on top.
@@GEOGIRL No doubt there are numerous impressive cases of longevity, probably longer the less complex, but Dictyoptera are pretty impressive. While untrue at the level of the Genus, there's some 'meat', at the Order level, to the adage "cockroaches will outlive us all'. :)
My great aunt is to have her 301st millionth birthday come next week. I'm glad that she doesn't have the internet lest this video's closer get her feathers all ruffled.
The 'First Predator' video I mention at the end is not public yet, it is channel member-only for the time being, but it will come out for everyone next week (7/30)! ;D
My guess is Prosterol biota, but I'll see if I'm right next week :O
I think they're adorable little creatures. 😢 I always feel incredibly sad thinking about them going extinct. To be fair, if they survived 300 million some odd years, thats a pretty good run.
When you are showing the orders over time, you really can see the end Devonian really did clear them all out, Ill have to go back and see any if your videos on the Devonian and its end. I cant rember what happened in any detail 😅. Great trilo video!
I'm from 301 million years after this video was made, and this "GEO GIRL" was wrong, thankfully.
The trilobites survived perhaps 20 extinction events and deserve a mention, I agree. However, you and all your ancestors going back to the precambrian have survived ALL extinction events! Congratulation for that remarkable feat Geo girl!
It’s great to see young women who become geologists, as I did 40 years ago. It’s the profession with consistently the greatest job satisfaction. Trilobites are so handy as a quick guide for identifying rocks as Paleozoic at a glance.
Rachel: Other amazing survivors include the horseshoe crab Limulus (480 mya), the brachiopod Lingula (500 mya) and the cockroach (320 mya). I would not be surprised if the common cockroach is still scurrying about long after the demise of humanity. Love trilobites…my favorite invertebrate fossil next to ammonites. Thanks for keeping me current on trilobite longevity relative to past extinctions. As always, a splendid presentation!
Trilobites deserve a lot more attention than they have gotten. So thank you.
Considering their apparent over-representation in the fossil record one could also argue they've gotten too much. ;)
@@nomdeguerre7265Name-of-War I agree completely. One COULD say that. Yet I think most have a soft spot, pardon the pun, for the three-sided sea bug.
I'm still rootin' for 'em t'pull through!
I recently found my first Trilobite. It's from the Ordovician, and it's tiny. I'm still excited
"Man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much-the wheel, New York, wars and so on-whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man-for precisely the same reasons.” Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
I love Trilobites! Thank you! Your videos are the best part of my Sundays.
So glad to hear that! I love trilobites too ;) (if that wasn't already obvious lol)
We love trilobites too! My son and i found a bunch of molt pieces and a little whole one near our house from the Ordovician period. Theyre scuttling over brachiopods, and weaving burrowing between worm burrows.
That is so cool! :D
I've always admired the Nautilus for surviving from the Triasic till present day! I hope they survive the next extinction event that we're gonna bring.
Excellent Video!
Happily, I just found (and subscribed) to your channel.
As part of our daily mental exercise, my 76-year-old mother and I love to watch science news, general science topics, history, and geography videos here on TH-cam. We focus a lot on Astronomy (as she was an astronomer before retirement), but we love the other sciences tremendously. I was an Electrical Engineer before retirement to take care of her.
We love your work.
What were their very last ecological niches and habitats? What was the lifestyle of the last trilobites?
Trilobites are my favorite! These little guys are the only ones lived throughout the entire Paleozoic, they dominated the world much longer than dinosaurs did. Thank you again for sharing again, GeoGirl, I've watched many trilobite videos you posted. Hopefully more in the future! 👍👍👍🤜🤛🤝🤝
It’s an interesting topic when a spec on an existing species so successful than others.
love the new background! your delivery is excellent in this video, we love trilobites!! GEO GIRL ROCKS!!
Well who doesn't love trilobites?! ;D
I have two fossils of trilobites on my desk. I love to imagine what their world was like. Thanks for an interesting video!
Very interesting. You always do such a good job explaining in a non-condescending way that even a barely educated, old GenXer can follow! Thanks!
Thank you so much for creating and sharing thisvideo about a very fascinating participant in the history of life!
Hi Rachel ~ I love learning about these lesser extinction events, because they still effected Earth’s geologic history. As before, I knew some detail but you’ve added even more. What I tend to follow most are the events of the Younger-Dryas period, which I believe included’s the ending of Earth’s most recent Ice Age, and the Mega-Fauna Extinction. I tend to favor the impact hypothesis, though I’m certainly no expert on it.
Maybe if you haven’t done so yet, maybe you could do a presentation about all extinctions that are currently known. Personally, I’d go all the back to the Great Oxidation Event.
Yesterday I watched a video of the development of life during the Paleozoic Era. What was curious was that there was no mention of sharks at all. I thought that after they showed up in the Devonian, they were considered one of the world’s top ocean predators.
They did show up in the Devonian, but throughout the Paleozoic, it is my understanding that they remained relatively small and non-dominant (the apex predators of the rest of the paleozoic being placoderms mainly, and later in the mesozoic, marine reptiles). It wasn't until the Cenozoic that sharks really went crazy with size, diversity, and dominance. Actually this comment gave me a future video idea about sharks evolutionary history, since it is so interesting! Thanks ;D
@@GEOGIRL The future video about sharks would be wonderful. The NHSM just finished our yearly "Shark Fest" event, which is coordinated with Discoveries Shark Week. I took over 200 photos and when I get through editing, I'll share the link with you :)
@@GEOGIRL Curious, do you ever do talks in person? I don't know what NHSMs budget is, but they do have speakers.
@@georgefspicka5483 I do! :D I love giving talks (if that is not obvious lol)
A lot of the 'live' talks I've given in recent years have been over zoom, but I am actually scheduled to go to Michigan in September for a seminar talk at Michigan Technicial University. I've done similar things at other universities, but I am not great at seeking them out, I just say yes when they ask me haha :)
Thank you geo girl excellent
Chances are they probably just got out competed by something because i doubt they were predated to extinction since a lot of sea creatures have similar defense strategies like hard armor, most of the time the problem isn't "can i crunch through a shell and eat that" but "is it worth it to do so".
"There's always a bigger fish."
Well done Rach, you get better everyday ❤️😊
Thanks mom
@@GEOGIRL you should have worn your fighting trilobites jersey
Great video featuring my favourite fossil animals. I always learn something from these videos but this time my knowledge was increased unexpectedly,...twice. Firstly, I've never heard pull bugs being described as roly- polys ( obviously I've led an incredibly sheltered life ) and secondly (it's open to debate which is the more important discovery) Voldemort had something called Horcruxes , and this was not a fatal illness. Thanks. Really loved this.
I love trilobites. I have a modest fossil collection of them.
Wow where you found them?
@@rolloxra670 Haha. I didn't find any. I bought some from rock/mineral/gem trade days at a state park. This was over at least a decade. Others, more recently, I bought from a company that sells fossils online.
Thank you so much for this! I live in Lake Louise so the Burgess Shale is just a short drive away, there are so many trilobites all around where I live.
*Great Job* on these videos! I've been watching for months now and really like both the presentation and the content.
Don't change a thing, just keep making great videos!
Thank you so much! I am so glad you like them ;D
Their lengthy survival was down to their cuteness. Everyone loves a Trilobite.
Very glad to find your presentations. Most every paleonerd likely started development upon seeing a picture of a trilobite, as well as some dinosaurs. My favorite tee shirt sported image of genus Elrathia(?) trilobite. This elicited comment from a cousin with a college degree, “What good is that?.” One reason I do not work in the family business.
Dig those Phacops eyes!
Wonderful video! Good sunday for you!
It appears that GeoGirl is also PaleoBioGirl. Those time periods do me in as well. I'm always mixing up the Slobbovian with the Insegrievian. Cannot imagine why. If Trilobites had survived, they'd be featured in our Seafood Salads today -- with Roquefort Dressing.
Some species, maybe. I wouldn't be surprised if we'd find some of them inedible because of poison spines or such.
Aww, Poor little alien woodlouse of the ocean!!! They look so cool...
They may have survived a lot of extinction events, true. But on the other hand, from their early burst in the Cambrian it’s really all downhill for them, kinda sad to watch. By the time the P/T event came around, they were basically a dead clade walking
I think trilobites and amonites are two the of the ancient critters I really wish had made it into the modern era. They're just such neat critters.
Trilobites are the most common fossil that you can find here in Östergötland Sweden. I've found a few orthoceratites too.
Very interesting Rachel.
I love this video! And who doesn't love trilobites? Lol, well, I got my daughter a really cool trilobite fossil, and she looked at it like, "What am I supposed to do with this?" I'm sure when she gets older she'll appreciate it more, haha.
LOL My dad gave me a trilobite fossil when I was younger and I also gave the same look! haha However, now I have fortunately grown to appreciate the trilobites ;)
@@GEOGIRL aww that's awesome.
LOL... I wanted to buy one at a curio store when I was a 5 or 6 year old kid, a nice partially pyrite one. My dad dismissively refused telling me I was stupid to want to waste money on a useless rock.
I think successful is open to interpretation. One could say they are species which have had no real evolutionary change for millions of years as they are perfect for the niche they fit (like crocodiles) and some might say we are the most successful. I have a hard time believing that crocodiles could ever achieve self actualization. I also believe that one day even our time will run out. Its very curious to ponder these things though. Trilobites are very cool and one of my favorite prehistoric creatures. Thank you for your video on them, I really enjoyed it!
I've always wondered how far apart trilobites and horseshoe crabs are in ancestry, body plan, and ecological niche. Are the similarities totally superficial and coincidental? Or do they have familial and/or lifestyle-specific reasons for ending up looking similar to us today?
In which paper is it mentioned that trilobites are replaced by other organisms that feed the same resource? I refer to the Early Carboniferous animals that likely replaced them and trilobites couldn't explore this niche anymore. Great video and discussio.
I like the book, and I like your take on it. That being said, molecular biology is also very interesting, and is an omitted part of this story, body plans, physiologies, adaptations transferred laterally to other groups might be of interest. There are organisms today that roll-up, that have interesting features (horse shoe crabs) and so on. A larger context post extinction is equally interesting as the extinction and fossil level one. Keep doing what you are doing, great content. Oh yes, I did dig out some Ollenelids myself, at a place where only hard shelled life is preserved. I do have a couple of interesting shales that may be contrary evidence. California...
You're not stupid. You are describing a lot of stuff in a short time, its easy to accidentally get a couple of things mixed up.
I really like how you explain some things summed up in a way which is really informative.
very cool thanks for the content :D
I understand that trilobyte eye lenses were made of calcite and that this is unusual. Has that feature ever been repeated by any other creature? Mineral instead of protein optics?
Great video, very informative. Thanks
Thanks so much! ;D
Tragic loss, the world will never be the same without these little hero’s scurrying around 😢
this was a fun video, thanks as always lady -- i wish they were still around because they are pretty cool -- but i have a question -- aren't horseshoe crabs modern trilobites? or at least cousins? they sure look like them.
For some reason they are rare here in north Texas
🎉 Trilobites are awesome!🎉 Yay! 🥹 They are adorable for some reason too😊
Thank you so much for this video
You're welcome, so glad you enjoyed it ;D
Where can I get the trilobite shirt you are wearing in this video? I don't see it on your website.
Yea, unfortunately that is not from my website haha, I wish! It is actually from amazon, here's the link: amzn.to/45b03y9 ;)
I like how most trilobites could roll into a ball to protect themselves. Sometimes a really spiky ball. I guess the evolution of animals with larger mouths, and then muscular jaws, made this survival strategy less effective. A rolled up trilobite was probably like a hard candy for some of the Silurian and Permian animals. Other strategies such as burrowing in the mud or just moving really faster were not obvious. Mud might not have been properly oxygenated. And the trilobite body plan doesn't give them the ability to swim fast enough.
Hallo,
Were there any known Trilobyte sp that liked hydrothermal vents? That environment may not have changed much at all throughout al these extinction events. Do any fossils survive those kind of places?
Great video!!👏👏🥇
Thank you! ;D
@@GEOGIRL 👍👍👋😊
Great Video. Don't know if they are teaching this in school (I'm old) anymore but for taxinomic order: Kings Plays Chess On Folding Glass Stools. Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genius, Species
Yes! I remember learning that from an early bio professor! That is so funny ;D
Trilobites are like the horsetails of the animal kingdom, except for the going extinct thing.
So for a time there was one group left. For quite a long time. Do we know what helped it survive for so long and what finally finished them?
Very intersting creatures.
If the Proetid genus had managed to successfully radiate into different genera and perhaps families, Rachel, do you think that the Trilobites could've served not only the Perms-Triassic extinction event but also the KT extinction event?
I don't think so, I think they were gone after the PT and if they survived that event I am thinking the were gone soon after in the Triassic. Keep in mind, the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods make up like 200 million years of Earth's history, so it was quite a long time from the Triassic to the KPg event ;)
When I was a little boy, I thought they were called trilo-bites because the survival of the fittest is one big _trial_ . . . and that _bites_ . 😬
Even though fishes are pretty much the love of my life, I’d have loved Trilobites to still be around.
I agree, but if they still existed today, I feel like we wouldn't appreciate them as much as we do now that they are gone ;)
Even if we don't have the Trilobites around we still have another relative to them around - the Isopoda that appeared about the same time the Trilobites went into decline.
It's of course a challenging family tree there.
I figured they'd burrow their way into the wet sand just like sand crabs after a wave goes by on the beach . I loved those
little burrowers and would try to dig them up as they burrowed for the creepy tickle feeling they'd create trying to burrow out of your fingers...
It must of been like that back in the Devonian, except there were millions of them, and some of them were HUGE!
They must have been successful because every kid I knew growing up that was even peripherally interested in fossils had a few trilobites stashed away somewhere.... I'm not sure how successful sand crabs are gonna be, because there were lots when I was a kid, but there's not as many these days AFAIK.... Interesting critters ...
(NB: I know they're a much later development, not actually related, but it was an interesting fantasy...cheers!)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerita_analoga
I survived 21 mass extinction events but the trilobytes are cute or whatever. EDIT: That's really interesting about the biological-caused extinction events. I guess there was a time before genome repair and apoptosis evolved. idk when that was, but you get the idea.
I have a Geo Girl hat which looks great and I really like the fact that it's the right size for my head and doesn't need to be adjustable. But I can't quite bring myself to wear it in public because I'm more of a Geo Guy and not a Geo Girl. Any suggestions?
Reminds me a lot of horseshoe crabs & 'waterbugs'.
Have horseshoe crabs ever been cloned? At least sequenced?
Its obvious to me, mass extinctions are regular and the timing probably can be described from the analysis of core drilling samples from around the world.
another piece of evidence for their success is just how many different animals convergently evolved to have similar body plans and fill similar ecological niches after trilobites went extinct
Since Trilobita is a Class-level clade, we should compare similar rankings - like trilobites versus mammals, not just humans. If we’re comparing Classes, then we might want to say gastropods have been more successful than trilobites, since they’ve lasted from the late Cambrian to the present, surviving almost every extinction in the Phanerozoic. But being a part of “Team Slug” just doesn’t sound appealing. So count me on Team Trilobite”!
Yea, I was going to go into a whole rant on how to compare at the same taxonomic level but then I just left it out cuz I felt it was too much hahaha ;) But that is a great point! I also agree that Team Slug just doesn't have the same ring to it ;)
@@GEOGIRL - And is that a cockroach emoji in the title?!? Trilobites get no respect! There are snails emojis 🐌, and insect emojis 🐜🪳, and dinosaur emojis 🦖, but no trilobites. Hey, that's what we need! A Geo Girl trilobite emoji!!!
Oh yea I forgot I can make custom emojis on TH-cam! I will make a trilobite one, what a great idea! 😄
There is a, probably inescapable, subjective bias to observation and theory. But that's not an entirely negative thing, as interest and wonder elicit investment. Fascination and wonder drive exploration. Passion has power as well a peril. Humans are driven by what they love, and that should probably never be condemned. Curiosity might best be encouraged in almost every case, no matter how odd, esoteric or irrelevant it might seem to some. It might be best to only inform sound exploration, and not at all what is explored. I would think children should be encouraged to enthusiastically explore, well and soundly, whatever interests them, however odd, strange, or irrelevant, it might seem to us. I would suggest that passion and interest are more valuable than whatever subject engenders them, and process, rather than purpose, the proper subject of guidance.
It's a pity these fascinating arthropods are no longer around, Rachel, if Trilobites were still extant would you have a pet Trilobite or two in a fish-tank?
Haha absolutely!
@@GEOGIRL Talking about extant Trilobites, Rachel, it just occurred to me that a modern-day analogue could be created by genetically modifying the Horseshoe Crab (The closest living relative to Trilobites).
I think you pretty smart lady, are still living so there is still hope we may also fair well.
Trilobites teem! (until the Devonian).
OMG I just realized I should've worn my Team Trilobites hat for this video lol, oh well, I'll just have to make another video about trilobites in the future haha ;)
It blew my mind when I realized, from another TH-cam channel, that trilobite fossils were around in the Mesozoic. I like to imagine there was a dinosaur who gathered some to build a nest and attract a female.
All those little sticking out bits were bait for predators, too 7:29
Cambrian Explosion is a great name for an ice cream flavor.
That is an amazing idea, I hope somebody who makes ice cream flavors sees this lol
Lol, good idea. what ingredients would Cambrian Explosion have? If it involves chocolate I'm in, if it involves shrimp I'm out.
@@Hellbender8574 I am thinking sour gummies of various lifeforms of the time mixed in to the ice cream, and maybe like mango-lemon with some heat to it. Open to different flavors though.
@@Falkon303My son (who is an expert in both the paleontology and icecreamology disciplines) says: Cambrian Explosion should be more like an ice cream bar coated with chocolate shell, shaped like a trilobite, snail, anomalocaris, etc. Also straight nautiloids and tube worms could contain cookie-like ice cream cones. With different flavors of ice cream inside each animal, and maybe other bits inside to represent the "guts." The chocolate coated bars and cones would represent the new prevalence of exoskeletons and shells in Cambrian animals. And you get the experience of being a predator when you eat the animal-shaped bars.
I liked the picture or diagram of the ecological versatility zones. Also, your statement that you do not think humans will last 300 million years is sobering.
Lotsa Devonian extinctions, but it seems we're on track to make the Anthropocene huge.
The insects say "hold my beer".
Some trilobites had poor vision, minimal eyes or even no eyes at all. Surviving in mud or in muddy water meant losing the large eyes or having smaller eyes with stalks. Good to hide from predators. But then if the conditions changed, re-evolving these big eyes might have been too much to ask.
I think humankind will be just fine. We are going more toward a hydrogen economy, which should allow for sufficient removal of carbon overburden. This upgrade will also create far greater tranches of wealth.
Adaptations and longevity, provide important details for lessons learned and best practices. So, your videos provide essential food for thought.
Trilobites are new to me, so I appreciate your portrayals and interpretations.
As always, excellent insight.
Oh don't get me wrong, I think humankind will go on for a while longer, I just don't know about 300 million years, I mean that is a long time for any organism group haha, especially a single species like us homo sapiens ;)
Thanks for the kind words, so glad you enjoyed it ;D
@@GEOGIRL Actually, I am more inclined to think that space based evolution would be a new stage, perhaps even prior to further branching along the sapiens course.
But, then again I have always been an optimist.
You display the best qualities of teachers.
Keep pushing boundaries.
Never trust a human to evaluate the human species.
You bear a visual resemblance to one of my nieces. I haven't spoken to her in years. She used to make bizarre comments and then add "I made it up".
Just as a quick aside, the last time I met with that niece and her parents was before the Trump era. Once Trumpism kicked in then as a practical matter, visiting became more difficult because people of a certain non-Christian persuasion had a harder time crossing between the US and Canada.
I wonder why isopods share features with Trilobites. Could isopods be cousins or decedents of trilobites?
If trilobites and isopods overlap in a period such as the carboniferous then I wonder if that Isopods may have just been trilobites under the same stresses as those found in modern pill bugs or even millipede pill bugs a convergent adaptation.
I thought that Horseshoe crabs (Limulidae) were Trilobites, because they seem so similar at the first look!
I thought there was a bug on my monitor... TYVM.
Is Kazakhstania the same as modern day Kazakhstan?
Is it me or GEOGIRL seems extra giggly in this video 😊 Instructive and Cute ;)
Maybe that's just stupid me, but I always think of wood lice when I see pictures of trilobite fossils. Maybe it's the same as hens remind me of little feathered tyrannosauruses, particularly when they get this greedy, hungry stare in their eyes. They might share their great, great great granddaddy, though-?
Not stupid at all! They are both arthropods, so yes, they do share a great granddaddy ;)
What were the 20?
What about horseshoe crabs?
Yay! Trilobites!
So, does anyone know what the trilobytes were up to at the exact times of these extinctions?
Sounds pretty sus to me.
Haha I wish we could go back in time and see what exactly they did. But it's also important to note that although they survived all these events, that doesn't mean they all did. They still underwent many species extinctions and individual deaths during most of these events, it is just that the events didn't wipe them out completely and they were able to recover after most of the events even when they were hit hard. :)
@@GEOGIRL I get it, promise.
@@GEOGIRL I subbed, I love this video. I just can't help but make jokes.
@@MarkAhlquist Thank you! And keep 'em coming, I love joking commenters, you guys make me laugh so much! You honestly think of things that I wish I had said in the video lol ;)
Sure trilobites were successful but the real question is were they good eating.
Yep. Trilobite diversity is stunning. Their extinction when other animals are thriving is an interesting mystery. ... clearly the reduction of diversity sabotaged their diversification strategy. Thanks Trilobites and morning coffee.
How do we have so many samples of fossils that we know when each species went extinct?
At least we still have triops.😢 No trilobite boil.
maybe besides tardigrades
No, beetles are (writing this before watching the video, opinion might change afterward. 😊)
Edit: Ok, by longevity I have to give it to the trilobites, but by diversity the beetles are still on top.
Actually, beetles may have evolved over 300 million years ago! So they aren't that different than trilobites in terms of longevity either ;)
@@GEOGIRL No doubt there are numerous impressive cases of longevity, probably longer the less complex, but Dictyoptera are pretty impressive. While untrue at the level of the Genus, there's some 'meat', at the Order level, to the adage "cockroaches will outlive us all'. :)
My great aunt is to have her 301st millionth birthday come next week. I'm glad that she doesn't have the internet lest this video's closer get her feathers all ruffled.
just so you know, i clicked because of that tshirt, how o how can i get one, that is THE question.
Haha, I don't blame you ;) It's from amazon, here's the link: amzn.to/3QYYEa1
Don't know if you noticed, but youtube added a "context" to this video, implying that humans are responsible for trilobite's extinction.