Stuck in a queue ... for 480m years

WHEN you’re stuck in a queue, it can sometimes feel never-ending.

So spare a thought for a patient trail of trilobites – who have been waiting in line for 480million years.

Fossils of the primitive sea creatures forming the world’s first ever queue were discovered in rocks in Morocco.

And scientists say that not only is this the first evidence of queuing, but the first discovery of ‘collective behaviour’ on the planet. Dr Jean Vannier, of Lyon University in France, said the trilobites were between 16 and 22 millimetres long with a ‘stout spine at the front of their bodies and a pair of very long spines at the back’. They were found in a line, facing the same direction.

The researchers’ findings, published in the journal Scientific Reports, said the creatures were either reacting to environmental cues or as part of seasonal reproductive migration – and that it is unlikely the queuing was random.