Here's details of an interesting find from Ordovician Sweden, trilobites contained within fossilised tunnels they had dug. Were they hiding from nautiloid predators or is there another explanation?

Food for thought.

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2006/08/10/trilobite_pla.html?category=earth&guid=20060810140030

And thoughts of food :smile:

My thought is "yes they did".

(Isn't science great?)

I wonder what else shared the trilobites burrows...

(and yes, science is great!)

Nautiloid thoughts:

Trilobite dinner
How do I get into that tunnel
Why dont trilobites just stay on the surface

Trilobite thoughts:

Ha ha, cant get me now
Where is that big worm that really lives in here?


Food for thought
thoughts of food
thoughts of being food

Think giant bristleworms (rekindling nightmares), think Permian extinction...

Could be waiting for exoskeleton to harden after shedding ref; "Trilobite" by Mr. Fortey

Keef

Here are photos of a Devonian fossil I found last summer - a trilobite inside an orthocone nautiloid. Apparently the association is known; it's thought that the trilobites hid inside to molt.
Internal mold of Michelinoceras? with trilobite Eldredgeops (Phacops). The length of the nautiloid fossil is 190mm.

:cool: Cool fossil, thanks for sharing it with us. Do you have any more fossils to share?

Think giant bristleworms (rekindling nightmares), think Permian extinction...

I have a coral book that contains a photograph of a giant bristleworm species removed from a persons reef tank. It was 5 feet long... looked like a giant centipede. I can see one of those making dinner out of a trilobite. Shoot... I can see one of those making dinner out of a nautilus. Nightmare material for sure. I wouldn't be hiding in it's hole!

Thanks for posting that picture Tornoceras.

It had me totally freaked out for a while... how could a trilobite get inside the phragmocone of a nautiloid? The same way the sediment that is filling the chambers did, the shell and/or the septa were broken so the trilobite could climb in and hide or molt, then the sediment filled the shell trapping the trilobite or its molt inside the shell. A very nice find, telling a cool story. 8-)

OMG Animal Mother, any possibility of a scan?

OMG Animal Mother, any possibility of a scan?

I'll try to get a photo of it when I get home later.

Mote had a bristleworm display (living) that contained critters I would not want to find growing in my tank (they were at least an inch wide).

didn't Mote also have an exhibit of "fireworms" or something like that which had some nasty sting? I've only SCUBA'ed in the Pacific, but I flagged those as something to learn to recognize if I dive in the Atlantic (particularly considering my propensity to flip over rocks to find the interesting invertebrates) yup, google confirms they are a type of bristleworm: http://marinebio.org/species.asp?id=292 :goofysca:

The one I'm refering to is labeled as a Palolo species. Sorry I haven't gotten the photo up yet. I forgot. Here's a good picture... http://www.kidsbiology.com/library/image.php?src=/images/repository/Euniceviridis1153624927.jpg&width=300&height=400

didn't Mote also have an exhibit of "fireworms" or something like that which had some nasty sting? I've only SCUBA'ed in the Pacific, but I flagged those as something to learn to recognize if I dive in the Atlantic (particularly considering my propensity to flip over rocks to find the interesting invertebrates) yup, google confirms they are a type of bristleworm: http://marinebio.org/species.asp?id=292 :goofysca:

Yes, Fireworms are nasty and capable of stinging whatever they touch. I have pulled a couple out of my tanks at least a foot long, about as big around as a #2 pencil. They sometimes eat zoanthid polyps :mad:. There was a post on my local aquarium societies forum quite a while back about someone getting stung. The "bristles" stuck in their finger, looked like they had stuck their finger in a cactus. Only caused mild irritation, but from my understanding the effects can vary.

http://www.advanceddivermagazine.com/PhotoG/tisg/ti0087.jpg This is a "Bearded" Fireworm. Fairly easy to distinguish from the more common bristleworms that are pretty harmless.

I have the usual over abundance of common ones but there is one that looks no different (pink with brissels) than the others EXCEPT it can stretch to 1' in length. We rarely see it as it lives under my brain corals sand filled plastic dish at the bottom of a 3' deep tank and, fortunately in this case, my arm only reaches in about 1.5'. It does not seem to bother anything but always causes excitement when it decides to show itself so I am glad to know someone else has grown them this big.

Monty, the IS the display I was talking about.

That's an amazing piece, tornoceras. I guess he'd have had to burrow into the shell. Crack a hole in one side and crawl in. Maybe he was trapped though. His head's still on, and that's not typical for molts from the silica formation at least, and that's where I find my eldredgeops. But yours is pretty tiny by comparison. But if he was hiding from a mudflow, then got covered, that'd make sense. Of course, if he hid there shortly after molting to harden up his shell, and then same scenario, likewise.