Posted on 05/26/2005 5:47:35 PM PDT by missyme
HORNY male trilobites may have been fighting it out over the females hundreds of millions of years ago, making them the earliest combatants known to take part in such sexual contests.
Rob Knell, a biologist at Queen Mary University of London and Richard Fortey of London's Natural History Museum noticed that some of the trilobites in the museum's collection had horns on their heads similar to those of modern beetles. Male beetles use their horns to battle each other for supremacy, with the winner getting the opportunity to mate. Knell and Fortey wondered if the trilobites used their horns for the same purpose.
There were other possible explanations: that the horns had a protective function; that they helped reduce turbulence while swimming; that they were sensory feelers; or that they helped camouflage the animal. But none fitted with the shape and position of the horns (Biology Letters, DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2005.0304). "The most likely function was in combat between male beetles over access to females," Knell concludes.
The study centred on a trilobite family called the raphiophorids, which lived in the Ordovician, 488 to 444 million years ago. But the researchers say their conclusions also apply to the headgear of other trilobites, such as the magnificent trident borne by Walliserops trifurcates (above) from the Devonian, 417 to 354 million years ago
MORE BUG SEX! For all you buggers.....LOL
Leave it to you to find horny trilobites from half a billion years ago. LOL!
I think some are even on this site! LOL...
You're turning into pissant's evil twin, aren't you. ;)
Well, if they're here, at least they're good Republican trilobites. I guess that makes them paleocons...
I think So! where is the bugger anyways? had to take over for him today...
His wife probably found out what kind of articles he's been posting here all day and made him clean out the garage. ;)
I'm here! at your service.
HAHA..Good one.
Palecons on FR....
Just wanted to know if your still one of those horny palecons?
Must be all those little Tickling Horns that drive the females wild!
I'm neither a paleocon nor a neocon. The other part I take the 5th.
I wonder how big they get. Dog size would be scary!
Trilobites were among the first of the arthropods, a phylum of hard-shelled creatures with multiple body segments and jointed legs (although the legs, antennae and other finer structures of trilobites only rarely are preserved). They constitute an extinct class of arthropods, the Trilobita, made up of nine orders, over 150 families, about 5000 genera, and over 15,000 described species.
New species of trilobites are unearthed and described every year. This makes trilobites the single most diverse group of extinct organisms, and within the generalized body plan of trilobites there was a great deal of diversity of size and form.
The smallest known trilobite species is just under a millimeter long, while the largest include species from 30 to 70 cm in length (roughly a foot to two feet long!). With such a diversity of species and sizes, speculations on the ecological role of trilobites includes planktonic, swimming, and crawling forms, and we can presume they filled a varied set of trophic (feeding) niches, although perhaps mostly as detritivores, predators, or scavengers. Most trilobites are about an inch long, and part of their appeal is that you can hold and examine an entire fossil animal and turn it about in your hand. Try that with your average dinosaur!
Evolution ping!
Darn, I'm glad the potato bugs in my garden are not that big!
Thnks!
Didn't know much about my Ancient Bugs...
From Female Spiders to trilobites....
New Scientist.com good site.
Are Potato Bugs Horny?
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