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
-- 
      So many of our dreams at first seem impossible,
       then they seem improbable, and then, when we
       summon the will, they soon become inevitable.
                           -----
personal:                    http://lalo.hystericalraisins.net/
technical:                    http://www.hystericalraisins.net/
GNU: never give up freedom                 http://www.gnu.org/



More information about the racc mailing list