LNH: 58.5 #4
Lalo Martins
lalo.martins at gmail.com
Sat Jun 23 04:31:53 PDT 2007
Also spracht Robert (Sat, 23 Jun 2007 09:13:03 +0000):
> It was not until Pangea, the fifth and final official
> supercontinent which started to form around five hundred million years
> ago that organisms began to evolve rapidly. Trilobites, arthropods with
> large exoskeletons that bear a striking resemblance to today's horseshoe
> crabs dominated the land. While early versions of these extinct
> creatures were less than a millimeter long, later varieties grew up to
> twenty-eight inches in length. Of note, some trilobites had eyes with
> upwards of fifteen thousand microscopic lenses in each one. They
Thanks!
According to my (admittedly not very extensive) homework, a few notable
species had "horns" in their exoskeletons, with which scientists believe
they would fight for mates. Old Ugly has these. Also, I read something
about some rare subspecies growing all the way to 70cm :-) Although this
doesn't matter, since Old Ugly's DNA was fabricated to produce a larger
animal, I still think it's interesting, because it demonstrates the
awesome flexibility of these creatures' anatomy; not many animal families
can vary in size from 1mm to 70cm! I imagine Old Ugly to be about 1.5m
long, not counting horns and antennae, and about 30cm tall.
best,
Lalo Martins
--
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then they seem improbable, and then, when we
summon the will, they soon become inevitable.
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