Trilobites and Linnaeus: the first fossil reconstruction from 1759

Abstract

A paper by renowned eighteenth century Swedish naturalist, Carl Linnaeus, published in 1759, contained the first fossil reconstruction of what was later called a trilobite and was an early milestone in invertebrate palaeontology. The earliest work devoted solely to Palaeozoic trilobites (Arthropoda), Linnaeus' “Petrificatet Entomolithus paradoxus …” delved, in great detail, into the classification of this genus intermedium between known marine crustaceans. Linnaeus depicted on two folding, copper-engraved plates the fossil animal (comprising the cephalon, thorax and pygidium with pleural spines and furrows) from the best-preserved material in limestone thus far recovered, including an erroneous interpretation of antennae in relation to this Swedish material – however, confirmed in the latter part of the nineteenth century with well-preserved Silurian trilobites.