Today’s post is a pair of great vintage, black and white trilobite drawings. Trilobites are an extinct marine animal found only today preserved in fossil form. They look a bit like horseshoe crabs but are actually more closely related to spiders. This illustration was included in the Arachnida entry in the 1911 Encyclopedia. They explained that there are believed that there were as many as 2,000 species of trilobite.
The first of our trilobite drawings show a dorsal view of these prehistoric animals.
The encyclopedia identified this specimen as a Triarthrus Becki. Their remains were found in New York, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and parts of Canada, China and Scandinavia. This reconstruction shows the appendages of the animals. Below, is a trilobite drawing showing the ventral or underside of the animal.
These creatures grew up to about 2 inches long. Fossils found in New York and preserved in iron pyrite made these trilobite drawings possible. The pyrite preserved more of the softer body parts including the gills, walking legs, antennae and digestive systems. How cool is that?!
This image is copyright free and in the public domain anywhere that extends copyrights 70 years after death or at least 120 years after publication when the original illustrator is unknown.
