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Molting habits may have led to extinction of once-hardy trilobite

Molting, that periodic ritual in which arthropods shed and replace their outer skeletons, can be a dangerous time for the creatures. Just ask the trilobite. Research published by an MSU paleontologist suggests that an inconsistent molting style, coupled with inefficient physiology, contributed to the demise of these prehistoric relatives of today’s crabs and lobsters nearly 250 million years ago.