Evolution works with whatever variation happens to exist in a lineage. Lucky for arthropods, they have a lot of raw material to work with. All arthropods inherited characteristics that allowed them to evolve in response to opportunities. Let’s look at a couple of very successful groups, trilobites and crustaceans.
In this section, we will take a closer look at two groups of arthropods and examine these key questions:
- How did the exoskeleton contribute to the evolutionary success of trilobites?
- How did jointed limbs contribute to the evolutionary success of crustaceans?