Importance
The study of Paleozoic trilobites in the Welsh-English borders by Niles Eldredge was fundamental in formulating and testing punctuated equilibrium as a mechanism of evolution.
Identification of the 'Atlantic' and 'Pacific' trilobite faunas in North America and Europe implied the closure of the Iapetus Ocean (producing the Iapetus suture), thus providing important supporting evidence for the theory of continental drift.
Trilobites have been important in estimating the rate of speciation during the period known as the Cambrian Explosion because they are the most diverse group of metazoans known from the fossil record of the early Cambrian.
Trilobites are excellent stratigraphic markers of the Cambrian period: researchers who find trilobites with alimentary prosopon, and a micropygium, have found Early Cambrian strata. Most of the Cambrian stratigraphy is based on the use of trilobite marker fossils.
Trilobites are the state fossils of Ohio (Isotelus), Wisconsin (Calymene celebra) and Pennsylvania (Phacops rana).
Read more about this topic: Trilobite
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