Home Paleontology Astronomy Rocketry Spaceflight Videos Links Books Contact Info                                    Devonian Trilobites from Belgium                          Abandoned Quarry la Lesse at Resteigne.           Over 500 million years ago they lived in the oceans of this planet, nearly 300 million years long. They are called the Trilobites, hard shelled, segmented creatures with eyes made of calcite lenses.     In the Devonian (416-359 million years) life for the Trilobites became a little bit tougher, some increased there armour dramatically. At the end there number of taxa drastically diminished.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    © Line drawings copyright by Dr. Sam Gon                                  Hanonet Formation                        The Somnium                                   Carboniferous Trilobites from Belgium                                                  Carboniferous limestone.         At the beginning of the Carboniferous (359 million years ago) the only surviving Trilobite Order was Proetida. The number of taxa again fall dramatically after the Mid-Carboniferous, and at the end of the Permian (251 million years ago) they where extinct.                                                                                                                                                                                © Line drawing copyright by Dr. Sam Gon                                  Tournaisian, Ivorian Substage                                        Carboniferous plant fossils from Belgium                                            Terril material.         During the Carboniferous (359-299 million years) forest and swamps covered vast extensions of land, land-plants evolved in increasing numbers. Swamps and forests found cover and food for many enormous scorpions, centripedes, dragonflies, cockroaches and grasshoppers.                                  Namurian / Westphalian     Note:  The Namurian (326.5-315 million years) and Westphalian (315-306.5 million years) are regional European stages. The Namurian overlaps with the Mississipian Subsystem and the Pennsylvanian Subsystem of the Carboniferous Period. Link