Trilobites may not look like lovely ancient creatures, but a new study has found that when they enter the mating season, they are like swimming potato worms wearing black knight helmets. They will gather together to hug and mate. This is the "mating evidence" found by scientists on Cambrian trilobite fossils 508 million years ago!
They pointed out that a pair of short appendages, possibly mating connectors, were found under the abdomen of the well preserved fossil, which were used to fix the male and female bodies. When the female trilobite's body was fixed on the seabed, another male would climb over from the back and fix the female body with mating connectors to make them in the best mating position.
Sarah losso, the author of the study and a doctor of organic and evolutionary biology at Harvard University, said that the importance of male trilobites holding on to females is that they can complete mating in the right position and successfully combine sperm and eggs, so as to increase the probability of egg sperm reception, which will increase the possibility of successful mating.
It is reported that more than 20000 kinds of trilobites have been found so far. They lived on the earth for about 270 million years until they became extinct at the end of the Permian about 252 million years ago.