# Question about trilobites.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-trilobites/684142>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 20, 2014, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-trilobites/684142 "2014-03-20T08:12:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\
**Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-trilobites/684142/1 "2014-03-20T08:12:09Z")

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I know that trilobites are considered to be related to horseshoe crabs. And I know that horseshoe crabs have bluish, copper-based blood.

Do we have any way of knowing what kind of blood trilobites had?

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**Author:** ![Anaglyph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Anaglyph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaglyph)\
**Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-trilobites/684142/2 "2014-03-20T09:57:40Z")

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According to [this paper](http://www.pnas.org/content/82/11/3721.short), the usage of hemocyanin as oxygen carrier in modern arthropods, crustaceans and chelicerates makes it very likely that trilobites also used hemocyanin

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**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\
**Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-trilobites/684142/3 "2014-03-20T11:19:50Z")

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Cool! Thank you, **Anaglyph.**

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**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\
**Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-trilobites/684142/4 "2014-03-20T11:40:09Z")

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Don’t end it here. We need more trilobite facts.

From the first list that showed up when I googled “[interesting facts about trilobites](http://research.amnh.org/paleontology/trilobite-website/twenty-trilobite-fast-facts).”

> [@](#):
>
> Many trilobite fossils represent remnants of their shed exoskeletons, rather than of the trilobites themselves.