Paradoxides

Paradoxides paradoxissimus · Paradoxides is a genus of large to very large trilobites that lived during the Middle Cambrian period, with fossils found throughout the world.

It lived about 514 to 497 million years ago.

Paradoxides
Photo: Takkk, CC BY-SA 3.0
Paradoxides
Photo: Mike Peel, CC BY-SA 2.0 uk
Paradoxides
Photo: Ryan Schwark, CC0

Taxonomy

KingdomAnimalia
PhylumArthropoda
ClassTrilobita
OrderRedlichiida
FamilyParadoxididae
GenusParadoxides
SpeciesParadoxides paradoxissimus

Where its fossils were found

Eastern Canada and the USA, Colombia, much of Europe (Czechia, Sweden, Spain, Britain), Morocco, Turkey and Russia.

Fun facts

  • One record-breaking Paradoxides davidis specimen measures 37 cm (15 in), making it a giant among trilobites.
  • Its crescent-shaped eyes gave it an almost 360° view, but only in the horizontal plane.
  • Its flexible body segments let Paradoxides roll up for protection from the front, rear, top and bottom, though its soft underside stayed reachable from the sides.
  • To moult, Paradoxides arched its body above the sea floor and dug its rear spines into the sediment, then stretched until its old shell split open.

Play it

The Paradoxides was the creature in the Prehistoric daily on October 23, 2026. Can you identify tomorrow's from its photos? Every day brings a new creature to place from kingdom to genus, map and name.

Play today's creature or replay a past daily

Facts and taxonomy adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).