Line #3 Literature/StielaugeDerUrkrebs


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/stielauge_der_urkrebs.jpg]]
2
3	''Stielauge der Urkrebs'' (German for ''Stalk-eye the Primal Crab'') is a novel by the German author Batti Dohm, released in 1933.
4
5	It tells the story of the [[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeOtherExtinctCreatures trilobite]] Stielauge in the primordial ocean.
6	----
7	!! This book provides examples of:
8	* FourLeggedInsect: The creature Stielauge encounters in the desert is called "Kerfe", which means insect, but it has only four limbs and looks a bit like a scorpion.
9	%%* AbsentMindedProfessor: August Goldfuß %% Zero Context Example
10	* AbsurdlySharpClaws: Stielauges spikes are likened to turkish knives.
11	%%* AfterTheEnd: The last three chapters. %% Zero Context Example
12	* AlienSky: Over the second half of the book, the moon gets bigger and bigger[[spoiler: or rather closer to earth]]
13	* AllJustADream: After the boys see Stielauge's adventures in the end of the book, they wake up in the morning and it was AllJustADream. Or was it?
14	* AlternateAnimalAffection: Trilobites touch their antennas instead of kissing.
15	* AlwaysABiggerFish: Stielauge meets various creatures, most of them are bigger than anything he's met before. The biggest is Kokk, the placoderm, and even he is dwarfed by the ray. [[spoiler:Even the ray meets his end through the WorfEffect.]]
16	* AmnesiacHero: Stielauge, due to not having a brain, doesn't remember anything ever.
17	%%* AmplifiedAnimalAptitude: ZigZagged, see AnthropomorphicZigZag. %% Zero Context Example
18	* AnachronismStew: Stielauge meets a human in chapter 10, despite the story taking place in the devonian age.[[spoiler: Humanity actually survives until the modern age, where history pretty much works out like it really did ([[ScienceMarchesOn as far as the author was concerned]])]]
19	* AncientRome: Roman intruders to the Eifel are briefly mentioned in the epilogue.
20	* AnthropomorphicZigZag: It's repeatedly mentioned that Stielauge has no brain and acts purely on instinct, but all of his actions are told in an antropomorphised way, as if it was more than instinct. He is even seen talking with his love interest and other trilobites talk about him. In chapter seven it is [[HandWave handwaved]] that GibberishOfLove doesn't need intelligence anyway, so trilobites might as well be able to do it.
21	* AnyoneCanDie: At first it seems like [[spoiler:Stielauge has PlotArmor, as he survives lots of troubles against all odds, but then he finally succumbs to his injuries after fighting Kokk.]]
22	* TheApocalypseBringsOutTheBestInPeople: Deliberately invoked by God when he uses the flood and the harsh desert conditions not only to wipe out weaker creatures but also to strenghten the stronger ones.
23	* ApocalypseHow:
24	%%** One happens when God creates a new moon.
25	%%** [[spoiler:The ice age later in the book is a class 0 on a pretty big scale.]]
26	%%** [[spoiler:When the second moon crashes on earth, another class 4 happens, and this time it borders on class 5.]]
27	* ApocalypseWow: Every major cataclysm is described in detail.
28	* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Arthropods like trilobites do indeed have brains, despite the author repeatedly reminding us that Stielauge doesn't.
29	* ArtisticLicensePaleontology:
30	** Despite Stielauge being called an "Urkrebs", which literally means "primal crab", trilobites are not crustaceans.
31	** And then there's the whole humans since the devonian age thing.
32	** Also, the first humans being described as blond while blond hair has only evolved much later. This is most likely a case of HumansAreWhite.
33	* ArtisticLicensePhysics: The creation of the moon and the following disruptions on earth last less than a month.
34	** Also, it's the second moon that earth had. In reality, there was only ever one moon for earth.
35	** [[spoiler:Third, in accord with the Welteislehre, the moon is made out of ice and only its core is made of stone and metal.]]
36	* {{Atlantis}}: Atlantis is a tropical island to the west of Gondwana, Stielauge's birthplace and his destination when he flees from the ice age.
37	** Atlantis' existence in this book is based on a hypothesis by Austrian geologist Eduard Suess, who erroneously believed that in the Paleozoic there were two large continents in the Northern Hemisphere: "Atlantis", North America connected to Europe by a peninsula (=Greenland and Iceland); and "Angara-land", eastern Asia, named after the Angara River in Siberia. Angaraland also gets sometimes mentioned in the book, but it doesn't have a mythical counterpart like Atlantis.
38	** Another famous sunken continent, Lemuria, is mentioned as being located at the other side of the world.
39	* BabiesEverAfter: What Stielauge and his love interest plan in chapter seven.
40	* BeTheBall: Like pill bugs and real trilobites, Stielauge and other trilobites roll into balls to shield themselves from damage.
41	%%* BeachKiss: The humans do this in chapter 10.
42	* BibleTimes: The early days of life on earth are likened to events from Genesis.
43	* BiblicalMotifs: While the book describes evolution and several processes happening in ancient earth, it likens them to the first days of creation according to the bible. In the end of some chapters, there are even bible quotes which are part of the story.
44	* BigBrotherBully: Stielauge is this to Wangenhorn when he reaches maturity.
45	* BigBrotherInstinct: Stielauge towards Wangenhorn when he first meets him.
46	* BigCreepyCrawlies: Several examples:
47	%%** The Großkopf (Bighead) trilobite in the beginning.
48	%%** The Kerfe in the desert.
49	** The horseshoe crab is even bigger and the first creature to be a real threat to Stielauge.
50	** The sea spider towers over Stielauge.
51	** Like the horseshoe crab, the millipede in chapter eight is almost half a meter long, but Stielauge never finds out if it's even alive.
52	* TheBigDamnKiss: Despite being not even named, the humans share one in chapter 10.
53	* BigEater: Stielauge everytime he finds enough food.
54	* BrainFreeze: When Stielauge tries to eat hail because he mistakes it for some sort of jellyfish.
55	* CatchYourDeathOfCold: Stielauge's illness is a sign of the impending ice age.
56	* Cloudcuckoolander: Goldfuß looks like one to the farmers and shepherds of the Eifel.
57	* ColonyDrop: Happens with the moon. [[spoiler: Twice!]]
58	* ColorFailure: When the starfishes die in the great flood, their color fades (except for the black ones).
59	* ComingOfAgeStory: Stielauge starts the story very young, but finally reaches sexual maturity in a later chapter.
60	* ConspiracyKitchenSink: At least the Welteislehre und Atlantis are real. The author even provides a list of books about both topics at the end of the book, but none about paleontology, the main inspiration for the book.
61	* CorpseLand: The coastal areas after the second moon is created and the tides started.
62	* CrapsackWorld: Every now and then a moon crashes on earth before another one is created, both events leading to cataclysms and floods, there are predators everywhere and before plants invade the land, it is a harsh, lifeless desert.
63	* CreatorProvincialism: While most of the story takes place all over the world in the devonian age, the epilogue in the modern age takes place in the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eifel Eifel]], where the author lived.
64	* CrossingTheDesert: What Stielauge has to do when a storm drops him off in the middle of the desert.
65	* DanceOfRomance: Stielauge performs a dance for his love interest in chapter seven.
66	* DavidVersusGoliath: Stielauge vs Krummhorn, and later the even bigger Kokk.
67	* DealWithTheDevil: The ray is accused of making one to get his electric powers.
68	* ADeathInTheLimelight: The ray first appears in chapter 14, [[spoiler:after Stielauge's death, is the protagonist of this chapter and then dies like all the other animals.]]
69	* DeathWorld: Every other chapter, some major cataclysm destroys many lifeforms.
70	%%* DeliciousDistraction: Stielauge when he meets the horseshoe crab on land %% Zero Context Example
71	* DestroyerDeity: God invokes this for PopulationControl
72	* {{Determinator}}:
73	** Stielauge when he runs towards his new wife in chapter 11. He doesn't even stop to eat.
74	** All the animals when they flee from the ice age. They just swim and walk away from the cold, only stopping when they die or reach warmer waters.
75	** [[spoiler:When he finally dies, it's stated that Stielauge fought until the end, just as he had to fight for his whole life.]]
76	* DetonationMoon: What happened to the first moon. [[spoiler:And later to the second one.]] And [[spoiler:three others before today.]]
77	* DidNotGetTheGirl: Most of chapter seven is dedicated to Steilauge's romance with a female trilobite, but they get separated during a fight against an ammonite and he doesn't find her again.
78	* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: Stielauge manages to hurt Krummhorn enough to cause him to retreat despite being tiny in comparison.
79	** Later, he manages to badly hurt and even partly blind the even bigger Kokk.
80	* DinosaursAreDragons: At some point between Stielauge's death and the modern day, humanity has to deal with dragons. The timespan implies that they are dinosaurs. There's also a picture of one of those dragons which looks like a {{Slurpasaur}} and is surrounded by Pterosaurs.
81	* DisasterScavengers:
82	** Stielauge has to resort to this when he is dropped in the desert.
83	** In chapter four, starfishes and brittle stars are mentioned to take advantage of the CorpseLand that is found at every coast.
84	* DistantFinale:[[spoiler: The last two chapters tell the story of humanity from the catastrophe that killed off Stielauge until today and how the author found the fossil.]]
85	* DoomedByCanon: Stielauge lives in the Devonian age, so it's only natural that he doesn't survive until past the Permian Great Extinction.
86	* DuelToTheDeath: The General challenges Stielauge to one after our hero has insulted him, but he decides to let him live after he has beaten him. Stielauge however learned nothing from it.
87	%%* TheDulcineaEffect: The reason why Stielauge attacks Krummhorn.
88	* DyingAlone: [[spoiler:Stielauge]] dies alone in the Great Disaster near the end of the book, far away from his wife.
89	* EccentricMentor: Stielauge sees himself as a mentor to the younger Wangenhorn he just met shortly before messing with another young trilobite for no particular reason.
90	%%* ElderAbuse: Stielauge does this among other things when he reaches maturity. %% Zero Context Example
91	* EyeScream: Stielauge blinds Kokk by impaling his optic nerve from within.
92	* FantasyKeepsake: After the boys find out that [[spoiler:Stielauge's adventures were all just a dream, they really find Stielauge's spikes in Kokk's skull.]]
93	* FirstLove: The female trilobite from chapter seven is this for Stielauge
94	* FirstSnow: In chapter eight, Stielauge sees and feels his first hail.
95	* FishOutOfWater: Stielauge when he finds himself in the desert after a storm.
96	* FlingALightIntoTheFuture: [[spoiler:Stielauge involuntarily does this by fossilizing after his death.]]
97	* FlyingSeafoodSpecial: Stielauge and the ray do this at different times in the book due to being hurled out of the water by a storm.
98	* ForegoneConclusion: We see Stielauge's fossil in the beginning of the book.[[spoiler: Later, he dies and the fossilization process is described.]]
99	* FossilRevival: [[spoiler:In the end of the book, God revives Stielauge to show the boys all of his adventures. Then it turns out it was AllJustADream.]]
100	* FourthDateMarriage: More like first date marriage. Stielauge and his wife marry immediately.
101	%%* FragileSpeedster: The only reason why Stielauge manages to fight off Krummhorn.
102	* GiantEnemyCrab: Invoked with Stielauge himself, who, once he reaces maturity, is an apex predator.
103	** The horseshoe crab, like Stielauge not a real crustacean, is even bigger.
104	** Then there's the "Panzerkrebs" (armored crab), whoe actually seems to be a crustacean and has a size of nearly half a meter
105	* GiantSpider: The sea spider, at least compared to Stielauge. Technically, it's not a spider, but it fits this trope.
106	* GiantSquid: Krummhorn is a giant ammonite.
107	* GibberishOfLove: Stielauge at first isn't able to say a word to his love interest, but he gets better.
108	* GluttonyMontage: Everytime Stielauge finds a place with lots of food, it's described in detail while he eats.
109	* GoForTheEye: Stielauge impales Kokks optic nerve from within.
110	* GoodIsNotNice: Invoked with God, who realizes that in order to prevent an OverpopulationCrisis, he has to destroy a lot of life and make conditions harder in order to strenghten the survivors.
111	* TheGreatFlood: [[spoiler:A flood happens near the end of the book when the moon is destroyed. In one of ''Literature/TheBible'' quotes it's specifically mentioned that God created it to wipe out humanity except for Noah and his family. However, this is later proven wrong since the only human surivors are shown to be the nameless and his wife and he is then given the name Manu.]]
112	%%** Happens after the moon is created.
113	* GrimUpNorth: While "Nordland" is a warm place at first, it's the first land to be hit by the ice age.
114	* GrumpyOldMan: Rauhschild
115	* HandWave: The explanation why trilobites without brains (Stielauge and his love interest) are able to talk to each other: GibberishOfLove doesn't need intelligence, anyway.
116	* TheHeroDies: Stielauge dies during one extinction event.
117	* HeroicSacrifice: Stielauge saves his wife from Kokk and actually manages the fight him off, but in the next chapter, he dies from his injuries.
118	* HistoricalDomainCharacter: August Goldfuß, a german zoologist and paleontologist.
119	* HoldYourHippogriffs: "Bis über beide Ohren verliebt sein" (literally: to be in love over both ears), a German expression for being head over heels in love, is replaced with "Bis über beide Antennen verliebt sein" (literally: to be in love over both antennas).
120	%%* HoldingHands: Or rather touching antennas.
121	%%* HordeOfAlienLocusts: The black trilobites in chapter 1.
122	* HumansAreCthulhu: When Stielauge meets a human, it's described in detail as something bigger than a mountain and really terrible.
123	* HumansAreSpecial: Humanity existed since the devonian age and is the only species from back then to survive until today.
124	* HumansThroughAlienEyes: There is a pretty detailed description of the human from Stielauge's point of view, and it's strange and terrible.
125	* {{Hypocrite}}: Stielauge himself only thinks about eating when he senses the pile of corpses in chapter five, but is disgusted when he sees that the starfish and brittle stars also gorge themselves on the corpses.
126	* IAteWhat: Stielauge mistakes hail for a jellyfish-like creature and tries to eat it, only to get a nearly fatal BrainFreeze.
127	* IdiotHero: Stielauge is not able to think and acts purely on instinct.
128	* IntriguedByHumanity: Stielauge and other animals are absolutely stunned by the beautiful voice of the humans, even before it's revealed that the voice belongs to a human.
129	* JerkassRealization: Stielauge after he gets beaten by the Panzerkrebs
130	* NamesToRunAwayFrom/KNames: Kokk, the placoderm, manages to have a name which is 75% K and he's the most powerful monster Stielauge meets.
131	* KidHero: It is mentioned that Stielauge is too young to reproduce, but he finally reaches his final molt and maturity in chapter 6.
132	* KillItThroughItsStomach: This is how Stielauge defeats Kokk.
133	* KillItWithIce: Done by the ice age in chapter eight to a lot of animals.
134	* KilledOffScreen: [[spoiler: After Stielauge's fight with Kokk, we see Stielauge succumb to his injuries. Later it's revealed that Kokk died even before Stielauge from his own injuries.]]
135	* KissOfDistraction: Though not intentional, the female human distracts the male with a kiss long enough for Stielauge to flee.
136	* LaughOfLove: Stielauge's love interest in chapter seven does this sometimes.
137	* LetsDuet: Stielauge and his love interest sing a song together.
138	* LevelAte: How Stielauge sees the black mud with all the prey animals in it.
139	* LocalReference: Stielauge is based on a specificl trilobite fossil the author found near his home[[spoiler:, and the epilogue tells a brief version of the place's human history including the finding of the fossil.]]
140	* TheLostLenore: It's not clear if she's dead, but Stielauge's wife definitely disappears after his fight with Kokk.
141	* LoveAtFirstNote: Stielauge falls in love with the female trilobite in chapter seven before seeing her just because of her voice.
142	* LoveCannotOvercome: In a variation, Stielauge's love interest is nowhere to be found after he fought a monster for her and he, being an AmnesiacHero, promptly forgets her.
143	* LoveFloats: Non-supernatural example. Due to living under water, Stielauge swims and does a three-dimensional dance of love.
144	* LoveMakesYouDumb: Stielauge attacks Krummhorn despite being many times smaller and weaker.
145	** Also, this is used to justify why Stielauge and his love interest are able to talk to each other. GibberishOfLove doesn't need intelligence, so brainless trilobites might as well be able to do it.
146	* LoveRedeems: After his jerkass-episode, Stielauge noticabely calms down after meeting his love interest.
147	* {{Lunacy}}: The moon is created by God in order to destroy a lot of lifeforms to prevent an OverpopulationCrisis.
148	** Later in the book, it is noted that the moon controls the animals of the sea and is the reason for Stielauges jerkass behaviour and his love episode.
149	* MamaBear: When all animals flee from the ice age, those who are mothers are the only ones that still aggressively defend themselves and their offspring.
150	* MeaningfulName: Stielauge is German for stalked eye. His genus, ''Cyphaspis'', really had stalked eyes.
151	** There are also Wangenhorn (en. cheek horn) and Rauhschild (en. rough shield)
152	* MedievalStasis: Or rather stone age stasis. Humanity apparently lived from the devonian age until roughly 13,000 years ago without any technological advances, only to develop technology like we did in real life since then.
153	* MenAreStrongWomenArePretty: Stielauge and his love interest play this straight.
154	* MindControlMusic: The sound in chapter five stuns Stielauge and other animals because it's so beautiful.
155	* MisplacedWildlife: Stielauge meets the first human in Atlantis. While the first humans really appeared in Africa (and hundreds of millions of years later than in the book), Atlantis is really seen as the origin of humanity by Atlantis-fanatics.
156	* MixAndMatchCritters: Kokk is described as "Panzerfish", which means he is a placoderm, but he also has elements of lobe-finned fishes as well.
157	* MostWritersAreHuman:[[spoiler: The writer wouldn't have to include humans in the devonian age or an epilogue where humans find Stielauge's fossil for the story, so it seems to be due to this trope.]]
158	* MouseWorld: Due to trilobites and most other animals back in the devonian age being much smaller than humans, the 0.5m long Panzerkrebs and several other normal-sized invertebrates appear as giant monsters.
159	** When Stielauge later meets a human, it picks him up with one hand and tries to eat him.
160	* MyOwnPrivateIDo: Stielauge and his love interest decide to marry in secret. They never do it since they loose each other.
161	** Later, when he meets the trilobite who would eventually (that means, this very night) become his wife, they marry in her cave with no guests present.
162	* TheNameless: The humans. It's implied that they are Adam and Eve[[spoiler: before God calls the male Manu near the end of the book.]]
163	* NearlyNormalAnimal: Stielauge could count as ANA, despite acting purely on instinct.
164	** It's later revealed that the trilobites can even talk to each other, but it's not AnimalTalk because they can't talk to other species.
165	* NoExportForYou: The book was never released in English, which might have something to do with it being released in Germany during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII.
166	* NoRomanticResolution: The romantic arc in chapter seven just ends when Stielauge's love interest disappears while he fights Krummhorn and he forgets her afterwards due to not having a brain. His marriage ends in a similar way after fighting Kokk.
167	%%* NoahsStoryArc: The trope namer is mentioned near the end of the book.
168	* NubileSavage: The first humans are depicted naked in the pictures.
169	* OceanAwe: After being thrown onto the land, Stielauge does everything he can to get back to the ocean.
170	%%* TheOldNorthWind: The iceberg is treated this way.
171	* OurDragonsAreDifferent: The ray is described as a dragon twice. Later, dinosaurs are described as dragons.
172	* OurGiantsAreBigger: It's mentioned that between the age of dinosaurs and the modern age, humanity had to deal with giants.
173	* OverpopulationCrisis: God knows that this will happen if he doesn't use PopulationControl
174	* PaleFemalesDarkMales: While Stielauge is described as black, his love interest is said to be green with black higlights.
175	** Later, when he meets his wife, we see a picture of them, with him being remarkabley darker.
176	* PapaWolf: Stielauge attacks the much bigger Kokk when he threatens his wife and eggs.
177	* PlayingHardToGet: Stielauges love interest in chapter 7 does this despite obviously being in love with him and even planning to have children together.
178	* PoisonIsEvil: The yellow starfish in chapter 5 that uses poison to kill its prey is depicted in a much more negative light than other predators.
179	%%* PoisonousPerson: The yellow starfish
180	* PopulationControl: God creates the moon in order to cause storms and kill of most life on earth.
181	* PredationIsNatural: Stielauge views most creatures as his food
182	* PurpleProse: The whole book is written in a very flowery way with many details.
183	* QuestForSex: While the book definitely isn't a QuestForSex, when Stielauge runs to reach his future wife, it's noted that everything he did up until now was to build up this moment.
184	* ReducedToRatburgers: When Stielauge has to eat a sea cucumber because there's nothing else to eat, he views it as the most disguisting food he's ever eaten.
185	* ScaryScorpions: The creature Stielauge encounters in the desert looks a bit like a scorpion, but is only called "Kerfe", an old German word for insects.
186	* SceneryGorn: Every time when a major cataclysm destroys life on earth, for example in chapter two and four, it is described in every detail.
187	* SceneryPorn: The SceneryGorn in chapter four is interrupted by detailed descriptions of how plants conquered dry land and made it green.
188	* ScienceMarchesOn:
189	** Trilobites are not crustaceans. They were, however, classified as such in the 1930s.
190	** The book makes frequent allusion to the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welteislehre Welteislehre]] that was very popular in Germany back when it came out, but is now regareded as completely wrong.
191	** The dragon, which is obviously a dinosaur, looks nothing like modern depictions of dinosaurs.
192	* ScifiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale: Stielauge seems to live for several million years and sees lots of other species coming and going. Or all those events happen within a much shorter timespan than in real life.
193	* SecondLove: Stielauge ends up marrying the female trilobite he meets in chapter 11, long after his first love.
194	* SecondarySexualCharacteristics: The female trilobite is described as being much more slender and elegant than the more robust Stielauge.
195	* SecretRelationship: Nobody ever finds out about Stielauge's relationship in chapter seven, but it's only intentional on her side.
196	* SeeWater: Justified since all characters are aquatic animals and this their eyes are made for seeing underwater.
197	* SexIsGood: When Stielauge and his wife finally mate, it's treated as something that God himself approves of.
198	* ShockAndAwe: The ray uses electricity to hunt.
199	* ShownTheirWork: Despite some cases of daated science and ArtisticLicense, the writer also shows good knowledge about trilobites. For example, Stielauge has to go through a molt early in the book, and rolls into a ball when threatened, like real trilobites did. It's also noted that crinoids are indeed animals and that their young are not sessile.
200	* SinkOrSwimMentor: God towards all life.
201	* {{Slurpasaur}}: The "dragon" looks like this
202	* TheSnackIsMoreInteresting: When Stielauge gets chased by a horseshoe crab and finds a pile of delicious animals, he quickly forgets that he's fleeing and only has eyes for the food.
203	* SnowMeansDeath: The result of the ice age in chapter eight.
204	* SociopathicHero: Stielauge, due to only acting on instinct, doesn't show any regard for the lives of others and happily eats other creatures if he is hungry. Despite that, he still sees them as his subjects.
205	%%* SpidersAreScary: While it isn't technically a spider, the sea spider fits this trope.%%How?
206	* SpoilerTitle: Chapter 13 is called "Und so starb Stielauge" (And that's how Stielauge died)
207	* StarfishLanguage: The trilobites communicate by touching each others antennas and vibrating them.
208	* SuperPersistentPredator: The horseshoe crab seems like this at first, but Stielauge manages to shake it off.
209	* SwallowedWhole: Kokk swallows Stielauge, but that's exactly what Stielauge had in mind.
210	%%* TheSwarm: The "Breitköpfe" at the beginning of the story.
211	* TechnicolorToxin: The venomous starfish has a bright yellow color.
212	* TeensAreMonsters: When Stielauge reaches maturity, he becomes a jerk before finally reverting to a more calm personality. It's noted that this fate befalls every creature with puberty.
213	* TemporaryBulkChange: In chapter eight, Stielauge finds himself near the southern shore of the northern continent, where there is lots of food. He eats until he's fat, which later helps him survive the ice age.
214	* TerrestrialSeaLife: Stielauge and some other aquatic animals sometimes find themselves on land, either intentionally or not.
215	* ThirstyDesert: Everywhere on land before the first plants get a hold there.
216	* ThreateningShark: Kokk is not a shark but a placoderm, but he nonetheless plays this trope straight.
217	%%* TookALevelInJerkass: Stielauge when he reaches maturity. %% Zero Context Example
218	* TheUnapologetic: After Stielauge insults the General, he doesn't apologize, which causes the General to beat him in a duel.
219	* WeirdMoon: It's actually the second moon.[[spoiler: And there are at least three more to come before the modern age.]]
220	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Both of Stielauges love interests disappear from the story when he fights some kind of giant animal for them and we never hear about their fates.
221	%%* WomenAreDelicate: Stielauge's love interest.
222	* TheWorfEffect:
223	** The adult Stielauge is stated as an apex predator for whom every creature is nothing more than food, but immediately after it is told that even he is small and insignificant compared to God. Cue God creating a great flood in which Stielauge only barely avoids being killed.
224	** Later in the book, Stielauge meets various creatures that prey on him.
225	** In chapter 14, the ray's power and superiority to all other marine life is described for several pages, only for him to die in TheGreatFlood
226	* WriteWhatYouKnow: Author Batti Dohm was a geologist and paleontologist, so it's only natural for him to write about trilobites.
227	* {{Xenofiction}}: The story is told from the point of view of a trilobite.

Context Literature / StielaugeDerUrkrebs