三叶虫是化石猎人最喜欢的节肢动物，它们曾主宰地球古海洋数十亿年。现在，一项新研究显示，三叶虫会排着整齐的长队在海底移动，就像很多现在的节肢动物一样。例如，一些龙虾在春季会排着一条长队向浅水区进军，在那里生育后代，然后在秋季排着长队再回到深水区。
研究人员检查了来自波兰圣十字山的距今3.65亿年的化石，发现了78个三叶虫的队列，每个队中含有19个骰子大小的三叶虫，它们是盲眼的物种Trimerocephalus chopini。
这些三叶虫有时会相互触碰甚至位于彼此的身体上，这表明这些节肢动物利用身体接触和化学信号相结合的方式获取信息。(今天，大螯虾会利用触觉及尿液的嗅觉在视线不佳的浑浊海水中保持联系。)
因此，此次这种盲眼三叶虫的队列代表了已知最古老的规模性迁徙，也代表了首个关于化学感觉探索的化石记录，研究人员在近日发表于《古生物学》的论文中报告说。目前，这些三叶虫迁徙的原因仍不清楚，但是与大鳌虾一样，它们也有可能为了繁衍后代而遵循季节性的迁徙模式。
原文摘要：
Trilobites, fossil hunters’ favorite arthropods, dominated Earth’s ancient oceans for hundreds of millions of years. Now, a new study suggests that trilobites migrated across the ocean floor in long, orderly queues—just like many modern arthropods. Some lobsters, for instance, line up each spring in a single file to march into shallow waters to breed, then march resolutely back to deeper waters in the fall. The researchers examined 365-million-year-old fossils from Poland’s Holy Cross Mountains and found 78 examples of trilobite queues, each containing up to 19 dime-sized trilobites of the eyeless species Trimerocephalus chopini. The creatures were sometimes found touching or even on top of each other, suggesting that the arthropods used a combination of physical contact and chemical signals to stay in formation. (Today, the spiny lobster uses contact as well as the scent of urine to stay close in poor-visibility, turbid ocean waters.) The T. chopini queues thus represent both the oldest known mass migration and the first fossil record of chemosensory cues, or chemotaxis, say the researchers, who report their findings this month in Palaeontology. The reason for their migration isn’t known, but the trilobites, like lobsters, may have been following a seasonal path to mating and breeding grounds.
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