Have you ever wondered what the world would have looked like before Noah’s flood?  When you go camping today, you might worry about a bear getting into your food. But, what if you had to worry about T. rex stealing your lunch (or just taking you instead)?  If you go to the beach today, you might enjoy picking up seashells, watching crabs, or swimming with fish. But, if you swam in the oceans before the flood, you might see some creatures you wouldn’t see today, like trilobites!

What is a Trilobite?

Try saying it out loud – it’s pronounced like “try-low-bite”.

Trilobites were amazing little creatures! They had an exoskeleton, like lobsters, crabs, and insects. When they outgrew their skeleton, they would shed it. Trilobites also had segmented bodies, like insects.

If you were to travel back in time and if you could catch a trilobite and keep it as a pet (instead of a goldfish), you would have a LOT of different ones to choose from!  Trilobites came in lots of different sizes, shapes, and types. Some had big heads with fancy horns and bumps. Others looked less fancy. The smallest known trilobites were 1/32” long (that’s about as big as the dot in this “i”).  And the largest ones were over two feet long!

Scientists still have a lot to learn about trilobites.   Since we haven’t found living trilobites, scientists have to make a lot of guessing based off of just the fossils. It’s like detective work. Some things just aren’t preserved very well in the fossil record, like what color living trilobites would have been.

Roll Defense!

What does a trilobite look like to you?

When I first looked at a trilobite I thought it looked a lot like some of the bugs I used to play with in my back yard:  roly-polys.  Maybe you call them pill-bugs. Just like a roly-poly or an armadillo, trilobites would roll up when they were afraid. That’s the special defense that God gave them.

Some trilobite fossils are completely rolled up in a tight little ball. Others are laid out flat. But, some are in-between – they were turned into fossils while they were rolling up! Imagine trying to take a picture of a roly-poly or armadillo while it was curling up, but before it completely rolled up. You would have to be very fast to capture that! It’s the same kind of thing with fossil snapshots – these trilobites had to be buried very quickly to be preserved partially rolled! These trilobites were caught by surprise and turned into fossils during the terrible, global flood.

Incredible Eyes

One of the most amazing parts of a trilobite is its compound eyes.  Your eyes only have one lens in each eye, but some trilobites had over 15,000 hexagon-shaped lenses in each eye!  In some types of trilobites, the eyes were made of two different minerals that were arranged very precisely to work together so that the trilobite could see correctly. Trilobites must have had incredible underwater vision!

Trilobite fossils are found in some of the lowest fossil-bearing rock layers. But they are very complex, unique creatures who came in a vast variety.  Some people believe that evolution made everything out of nothing. They expected to find only “simple” creatures in rock layers this low.  But, they have trouble figuring out where the amazing trilobite would come from so quickly, with its compound eyes and many different types.

Trilobite fossils show us that God did an amazing job designing things. He also did an amazing job designing something else. I’ll give you a hint: this is His very favorite part of creation. What is it? You!  Even though you don’t have a bunch of different lenses in your eye like a trilobite does, there are other special features all over your body that point to God’s wonderful design of you. God had a good design for the trilobite that lives in the water. But, God has a different design for your body because He has different plans for you. God designed you just right for the plan He has for you.

Fun Facts About Trilobites:

• The three segments of a trilobite’s body are called:
  • Cephalon (pronounced “sef-a-lawn”) – basically the head
  • Thorax – middle section
  • Pygidium (pronounced “pij-id-ee-um”) – basically the tail
• Trilobite fossils have been found on every continent, including Antarctica!
• Currently, over 20,000 different species of trilobites have been named
• Just like some dinosaur footprints were turned into fossils, some trilobite trails are preserved as tiny markings in rock

© 2018, Sara J. Mikkelson