Researchers from, among others, Uppsala University have succeeded in finding out what a 465 million-year-old trilobite ate. Trilobites are among the most common fossil invertebrates that existed on Earth for 270 million years.
By studying preserved stomach contents, researchers have been able to study what they put in. Crayfish, clams and other small shellfish were on the menu. But it had also munched on echinoderms and hyolites, which were invertebrates that existed during this period.
The researchers interpret the find to mean that the studied trilobite was an indiscriminate scavenger, eating whatever it happened to come across in the form of dead or live animals that easily fell apart – or were small enough to be swallowed whole.
“It seems to have gobbled up large amounts of food very quickly, possibly in preparation for shelling. Some arthropods do similar things today,” says Per Ahlberg, one of the researchers, in a press release.
For this particular trilobite, life came to an abrupt end when it was buried alive, upside down, in a mudslide. After death, it became food for other scavengers.
The study has been published in the scientific journal Nature.