Development of eodiscinid trilobites.

Abstract

A comprehensive review of a full developmental sequence of eodiscinid trilobites reported in recent decades from Cambrian Series 2 and 3 strata is presented. These mostly articulated specimens exhibit detailed morphologies with preservation of even delicate structures at different growth stages, such as the bacculae, axial pores, spine pores, pygidial marginal spines and line coaptative structures. Their trunk segmentation schedules displayed a consistent developmental mode in segment generation and liberation, that is tagmosis and somitogenesis occurred heterochronously after each moulting event, providing clues regarding the potential developmental strategy in isopygous and even macropygous trilobites. The fact that the rate of segmentation obviously exceeds that of articulation results in a seemingly prolonged process of the formation of thoracic segments, which might explain why eodiscinid trilobites have a fixed and limited number of thoracic segments. In addition, the relationship between enrollment mechanism and trunk segmentation during eodiscinid ontogeny confirms this highly unusual growth pattern among the Trilobita, revealing why these early-diverging trilobites controlled the rate of segment increase and release during their life cycles, and is thus of interest with regard to the evolution of arthropod body patterning.