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Trinucleus fimbriatusPRI 42101 |

scale in cms
CLASS - Trilobita
ORDER - Ptychopariida
FAMILY - Trinucleidae
GENUS/SPECIES - Trinucleus fimbriatus
ROCK UNIT - Llandelian
AGE - Middle Ordovician (465 million years old)
LOCALITY - Radnot, Wales, UK
This specimen represents an unusual group of trilobites. They lack the compound eyes ("bug eyes" with many lenses) that many trilobites had. Instead, they had a series of small pits in rows around the horseshoe-shaped head. These pits may have detected the movement of prey and water currents on the sea floor. Eyes would have been useless at the estimated 200 meters (600 feet) depth that these trilobite lived at, since light can't penetrate water that far down.