Trilobites don't have Serial Numbers

2009 is Darwin year (as well as Purcell year, Handel year, Haydn year, Mendelssohn year...), and for those music/science type institutions looking for musical Darwin links, Niles Eldredge has some interesting angles. He's a palaeontologist who has turned his biological theories to the development of the cornet. Apparently it is easier to keep track of the dates of cornets than trilobites because 'Trilobites don't come with serial numbers.' Sounds like the musicologists have got it easy for once.