British Museum (Natural History) General GuideBritish Museum (Natural History)
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British Museum (Natural History) General Guide
British Museum (Natural History)
British Museum (Natural History) -- Guidebooks; Natural history museums -- England -- London -- Guidebooks
IV. A small gallery is devoted to Starfishes and their allies
collectively constituting the class ECHINODERMA. Specimens of these
are arranged systematically in table-cases 1–24; and in case 36 are
specimens illustrating the anatomy of the skeleton, and models and
figures showing the remarkable changes undergone by these animals in
the course of their development. In a separate case on the east side
of the gallery is a case containing specimens of a large Starfish to
illustrate the variability in the number of rays from 4 to 7. In a
case on the opposite side is shown _Luidia savignei_ from Mauritius,
one of the largest of Starfishes. The Feather-stars (_Antedon_) are
also members of this group; but the most beautiful and remarkable
specimens in the gallery are the Sea-Lilies, or Crinoids, collected by
the “Challenger” Expedition. One specimen was found attached to an old
telegraph-wire taken up in the Caribbean Sea. These deep-sea Crinoids,
of which representatives, now extinct, were abundant in earlier periods
of the world’s history, are exhibited on tables in the corners of
the gallery, by cases 37 and 38. Some of the larval stages of the
Feather-stars (fig. 28) resemble stalked Crinoids.
The wall-cases contain representatives of the groups collectively known
as Worms. Case 1 contains the Tape-Worms or Cestoda, and the Flukes
or Trematoda, the life-history of a species of each being illustrated
by specimens, figures, and models. In case 2 the Round-Worms are
illustrated by models of _Trichina_, and the anatomical structure of
various other kinds is shown by the aid of diagrams. Case 3 contains
specimens of free-living terrestrial and marine Worms, Leeches, and
Gephyreans. Case 4 is devoted to specimens of Echinoderms preserved in
spirit, especially Holothurians, such as Trepangs or Sea-Cucumbers, the
Bêche-de-Mer of the French.
[Sidenote: Shell Gallery.[15]]
V. A large gallery is devoted to the great group of Shell-fish or
MOLLUSCA, the exhibition of which is, however, mainly restricted to
their shells. In some cases the form of the soft parts is, however,
shown either by specimens in spirit or by means of models.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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