Trilobite life

Trilobites were successful marine arthropods that lived in ancient oceans for roughly 270 million years from the early Cambrian to the end of the Permian period. Timeline and ExistenceTime Span: Appeared about 521–538 million years ago and went extinct during the Permian mass extinction ("Great Dying") about 252 million years ago.Status: Completely extinct; no living trilobites exist today, though distant relatives like horseshoe crabs and other arthropods survive. Habitat and Behavior. Environment: Exclusively lived in marine habitats, ranging from shallow coastal waters to deep, dark ocean floors. Behavior: Acted as predators, scavengers, filter feeders, and bottom-crawlers. Some species burrowed into sediment or swam in the water column. Anatomy & Growth: Featured a hard exoskeleton divided into three longitudinal lobes. They grew by molting (shedding their shells), which left behind many fossils.