Allopatric molting of Devonian trilobites

Abstract

Trilobite exuviae record the development of individual trilobites and their molting process and can also contain information on their behavior. The silt- to fine-grained tuffites of the middle part of the Middle Member of the Upper Devonian Hongguleleng Formation in western Junggar contains abundant phacopidae trilobite, specifically Omegops sp. A, almost all of which are exuviae. Based on the preservation pattern, burial environment, and set of organisms co-occurring with Omegops sp. A, we speculate that the environment represented by the middle part of the Middle Member of the Hongguleleng Formation served only as the molting site of Omegops sp. A, and that their primary habitat was elsewhere. Omegops sp. A would have thus travelled to deep-water to molt. The reasons for allopatric molting may have included avoiding predators and interference from competing organisms during molting. This implies that the migratory behavior of some modern arthropods may have existed since at least the Devonian. This behavior suggests that Late Devonian phacopidae trilobites may have migrated to deeper water expanded their ecological domain as a survival strategy in response to unfavorable ecological environment.