In this series of images we set out the morphology of the cephalon of one of our Phacopida trilobite

In this series of images we set out the morphology of the cephalon of one of our Phacopida trilobites a Drotops_Megalomanicus. The cephalon is the head, on the cephalon is the glabella and either side of the glabella are the schizochraol eyes. The large Devonian period marine arthropod a member of the invertebrate group displays large schizochroal eyes, schizochroal eyes had up to 700 individual lenses, convex lenses set in a bulbous sclera, the sclera can be seen here as the darker or black membranous substance surrounding each round lens. Each lens had a cornea and the once living arthropod would have seen the world in a multi image way through each of its eyes lenses, this would give the trilobite light and shade and movement, to guard against predators, other larger trilobites and larger arthropods.#Drotops_megalomanicus was a bottom dweller, palaeontologists can deduce this because of its eyes, these are set upright, on a turret like structure, the whole eye convex, was able to swivel and have an almost 360 degree field of view, the fact that the eyes do not swivel downwards suggest these were not free swimmers and were more sedentary in their foraging habits, the turreted eyes allowing them to see above the silts they were disturbing in the act of foraging, while at the same time keeping a lookout for danger. The eyes had covers, above the eye you may notice in the images the short spines. The globulous glabella set between the eyes can be seen with many tubercles or postures these could have all been for a defensive hard exoskeleton. Just behind the cephalon are the thoracic segments which one can see in one of the images, these segments ran the whole length of the trilobite towards the pygidium which was the tail end of the invertebrate, read more on our trilobites pages. This example is an enrolled phacops trilobite and with its amazing morphology is available on our web site.#phacops #trilobites #geology #palaeontology #invertebrate #fossils #fossil_porn #chitin #carapace #exoskeleton #trilobit #trilobitefossil #trilobita #trilo #geologist #geologico #geologyrocks #geologyporn #geologypages reference Drotops Megalomanicus TFS0007 -- source link

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