Redlichia: No measured body size data available to draw at scale.
- · Grid units represent actual meters (m); human and animals are drawn to the exact same scale with original silhouette aspect ratios preserved.
- · When a size range is recorded (e.g. 1–1.6m), the lower bound is used for scale comparison.
- · Human silhouette: PhyloPic — NASA · Public Domain Mark 1.0
Redlichia
Redlichia chinensis (Redlichia · Redlichia)
Known only from fossils. The IUCN Red List assesses only species extant since 1500 CE, so fossil taxa are not assigned a category.
💡 Everyday Comparisons for Size, Mass & Speed
- 💡 Molting in trilobites—shedding the outer shell as they grow—worked the same way crabs and lobsters shed their shells today (Comparison).
- 💡 A study of injured trilobite fossils (2022 PeerJ paper) is cited as evidence that shell-crushing predators already existed in the Cambrian.
Reference standards: coach bus ~12 m, mid-size car ~4.9 m, compact car ~1 t, basketball hoop 3.05 m, credit card 8.56 cm.
📖 1. Overview
Redlichia chinensis was a trilobite that lived on the seafloor of China during the Cambrian.
🦴 2. Anatomy & Morphology
Its body was divided into three parts—head, thorax, and tail—with spines extending from both lateral tips of the thoracic segments. A paper explains that one specimen from Hunan Province may be a molted exoskeleton (exuvia).
🔍 3. Fossil Record & Paleoecology
One specimen from the Balang Formation in Hunan Province has injuries in two places on its thoracic segments with different degrees of healing, which is interpreted as evidence that it survived two separate predator attacks. The PBDB classifies it as a seafloor deposit feeder.
🇰🇷 4. Connection to Korea
No direct record connecting this species to Korea has been found.
📚 Sources & References
- • Fossil taxon — the IUCN Red List assesses only species living or extinct since 1500
- • paleobiodb.org — basicTaxonInfo
- • wikidata.org — Q112175559
- • commons.wikimedia.org — File:Redlichia chinensis 2.jpg
- • pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov — PMC9558619
Recorded dimensions are widely cited representative estimates from public literature and may vary by study or specimen.