Photo: Michael Richmond
This 450-million-year-old, foot-long trilobite fossil, which now resides in the biological sciences teaching lab in the Mudd Science Building, was found in the Sahara Desert.
Predating insects, trilobites were marine bottom feeders that appeared during the Cambrian era and became extinct about 250 million years ago. Although there are no direct descendants of trilobites in existence today, shrimps, lobsters and crayfish have similar characteristics.