Lepidocoleus sarlei
Worm
Middle Silurian
Rochester Shale Formation
Middleport, New York, USA

Rare 8mm “armored” worm on 30mm matrix.

Lepidocoleus is a genus of armored worm of the Class Machaeridia, Phylum Annelida.  It is known from the Silurian to Devonian of North America and Europe.  Other machaeridians survived into the Carboniferous.

It has always been tough to be a worm. There have always been a number of other animals that like to eat worms. At some point some developed armor and it seemed to be a successful adaptation for millions of years, yet for some reason, it was the unarmored worms that survived the gauntlet of predators across the ages to the present day.

For those who want an example of that noble experiment in nature known as the armored worm, we offer this specimen in matrix.