Mr Wood 's Fossils - mwfossils@blueyonder.co.uk

Trilobites are amongst the oldest animals to have lived on the Earth with a hard shell. They lived from 570 to 250 million years ago.

The Trilobite animal has 3 sections; the head (Cephalon ); the body (Thorax ) and the tail (Pygidium ). Only the shell is normally preserved, on the underside there were delicate walking legs (like an insect) and another appendage supporting a gill branch.

Trilobites generally lived in shallow water, but some later ones became specialised to burrow in the sediment or float, like plankton today.

Trilobite fossils can be found in many parts of the world including Britain. We have trilobites in the shop from Morocco, America, the Czech Republic and China.