Sew my true love to my side and down the road we'd go

[sovay]

I am incredibly charmed by this paper from Vannier et al.: "Collective behaviour in 480-million-year-old trilobite arthropods from Morocco" (Scientific Reports (2019) 9:14941). What the fossils in question appear to document is a mass migration of trilobites (Ampyx priscus) traveling in caravans across the seafloor in much the same manner as their contemporary relatives the spiny lobsters, who organize their own migrations in single-file, tip-to-tail chains, always maintaining antennae-contact to ensure that everyone moves in the right direction and no one gets lost, at least until everyone gets buried under a sudden wave of anoxic sediment, which seems to be what happened to this particular convoy of trilobites. The significance is that if animals were coordinating their behavior to act as groups in the Lower Ordovician, the capacity for it must have developed much earlier. The image of trundling columns of trilobites is also irresistible. I can thank the authors for introducing me to the phrase "spawning congregations," which feels distinctly Innsmouthian to me.

Comments

[asakiyume]

Those lobsters you linked to! I felt such a wave of security watching how they traveled (and also they look kind of like little mini-beings piloting lobster-shaped mecha suits?). always maintaining antennae-contact to ensure that everyone moves in the right direction and no one gets lost *blinks back tears* Bless you, spiny lobsters.

And yes, the thought of trilobites migrating in that fashion is just wonderful.

[sovay]

(and also they look kind of like little mini-beings piloting lobster-shaped mecha suits?)

I definitely think we should have more lobster mecha.

*blinks back tears* Bless you, spiny lobsters.

If lobsters can take care of each other, we can do it, too.

And yes, the thought of trilobites migrating in that fashion is just wonderful.

They should be added to all appropriate dioramas of ancient seas!

[katherine]

How neat! Thank you for sharing these.

[sovay]

How neat! Thank you for sharing these.

You're welcome! I just thought it was wonderful.

[cmcmck]

Slipper limpets also exhibit this sort of stacking behaviour and they change gender while doing so.

Cop that, bigots! :o)

[moon_custafer]

Isabella Rossellini acts it all out here!: https://youtu.be/zhRKSnaxINI

[sovay]

Isabella Rossellini acts it all out here!

I love Isabella Rossellini.

[cmcmck]

Oh, that's wonderful! :o)

Thanks for the link.

[hamletta]

Never thought I'd be using the words "trilobites" and "cute" in the same sentence... :D

[sovay]

Never thought I'd be using the words "trilobites" and "cute" in the same sentence...

Trilobites can be very cute! I got one for my niece for exactly that reason. (I should tell her about this story.)

[hamletta]

Oh, that's great! Next time I'm shopping, I'll look for a trilobite! :D

[nodrog]

I agree!  This is AD 2019; tell Dr Tyrell he can keep his owl, we want replicantobites!

[moon_custafer]

I must show this to Andrew, he loves trilobites!

[sovay]

I must show this to Andrew, he loves trilobites!

Please do! Spread the good word.

[nodrog]

Naww, the Current Music was “Shady Grove,” c'm on.

[sovay]

Naww, the Current Music was “Shady Grove,” c'm on.

The line's in "Jubilee." It's been stuck in my head for days.

[nodrog]

Yah, he ripped off Doc Watson’s signature tune without a quaver.

https://youtu.be/b-kaG1NuLZM

[He dedicated every performance of this song I've ever heard, to his wife Rosalie - even after she died.]

P.s. okay, that version included new lyrics and missed that one:

If I had a needle and thread
Fine as I could sew
I'd sew my little girl to my side
And down the road we'd go!

Shady Grove, my little love, &c.

[sovay]

Yah, he ripped off Doc Watson’s signature tune without a quaver.

I know "Shady Grove." I don't believe it's ripoff; they are different songs in the same tradition that share lyrics because that's a common feature of folksongs, for one image to start in one song and then become incorporated into another. The needle-and-thread verse is in Jean Ritchie's family version of "Jubilee," from which Fussell adapted his. Ritchie herself knew and sang "Shady Grove."

[cmcmck]

There's a view that it's a variant version of 'Matty Groves' that really lost the original during the folk process, same as 'It rained it mist' did from 'Little Sir Hugh'.

[nodrog]

I like that interpretation better.

- Especially considering, as you say, the essentially oral tradition of folk songs.  For someone to work in something he’d heard is actually rather a compliment than piracy!

[sovay]

I like that interpretation better.

It's the great thing about the folk tradition!

[ashlyme]

Oh, that's just wonderful, isn't it?

[sovay]

Oh, that's just wonderful, isn't it?

Everything about it makes me happy.

[selkie]

Someone above already got the “Shady Grove variant” discussion, but I am now picturing Sherbourne taking up lobster husbandry. I hope that image helps with whatever medical malarkey you’re dealing with.

[sovay]

I am now picturing Sherbourne taking up lobster husbandry. I hope that image helps with whatever medical malarkey you’re dealing with.

Oh, my God, that's adorable. Thank you.

[thawrecka]

This is so cool!

[sovay]

This is so cool!

I'm trying to decide if, at the bottom of an ocean, you could find a trilobite trackway.

[brigdh]

What an adorable, wonderful image! Thank you for sharing it.

[sovay]

What an adorable, wonderful image! Thank you for sharing it.

You're welcome! A lot of science delights me, but every now and then you run across science you just want to hug (without, you know, disrupting its migration patterns).