trilobite

American  

[trahy-luh-bahyt] / ˈtraɪ ləˌbaɪt /

noun

1. any marine arthropod of the extinct class Trilobita, from the Paleozoic Era, having a flattened, oval body varying in length from 1 inch (2.5 centimeters) or less to 2 feet (61 centimeters).

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trilobite British  

/ ˈtraɪləˌbaɪt, ˌtraɪləˈbɪtɪk /

noun

1. any extinct marine arthropod of the group Trilobita , abundant in Palaeozoic times, having a segmented exoskeleton divided into three parts

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trilobite Scientific  

/ trī′lə-bīt′ /

1. Any of numerous extinct and mostly small arthropods of the subphylum Trilobita that lived during the Paleozoic Era and are extremely common as fossils. Trilobites had a hard outer covering divided into three lengthwise and three widthwise sections. Their heads had two prominent compound eyes similar in structure to those of modern insects.

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Other Word Forms

• trilobitic adjective

Etymology

Origin of trilobite

First recorded in 1825–35; from New Latin Trilobites, equivalent to Greek trílob(os) “three-lobed” + -ītēs noun suffix; tri-, lobe, -ite ¹

Example Sentences

"And then I came across something we never see in trilobite fossils."

From Science Daily • Dec. 21, 2023

"These were the first known complete trilobite appendages," said Losso, "before their discovery in the late 1800s, scientists knew of the walking leg, but not what the gill branches looked like."

From Science Daily • Dec. 21, 2023

Walcott’s trilobite fossils, and thin sections he sliced out of them, are stored at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University.

From New York Times • Dec. 19, 2023

Discovered by the paleontologist Charles Doolittle Walcott in 1870, the site yielded the first traces of trilobite appendages and soft-tissue features like gills.

From New York Times • Dec. 19, 2023

Even more awkwardly anomalous was another species of trilobite found in Europe and the Pacific Northwest but nowhere in between, which would have required not so much a land bridge as a flyover.

From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson