Observations on the Terataspis grandis, Hall, the largest known trilobiteClarke, John Mason
Science
Observations on the Terataspis grandis, Hall, the largest known trilobite
Clarke, John Mason
Paleontology -- New York (State); Trilobites
Transcriber Note -- Text emphasis denoted by _Italics_.
OBSERVATIONS
ON THE
TERATASPIS GRANDIS, Hall,
THE LARGEST KNOWN TRILOBITE.
BY J. M. CLARKE.
OBSERVATIONS ON THE TERATASPIS GRANDIS, Hall,
The Largest Known Trilobite.
By J. M. CLARKE.
Communicated to the State Geologist December, 1890.
Trilobites of great size have been reported from various formations.
With rare exceptions, however, these relics are but fragments of the
test, leaving to the imagination the restoration of the original
proportions of the animal, and without an earnest mental effort one is
apt to leave the contemplation of the large fragment with no adequate
conception of the imposing lineaments of its owner. Indications of
these gigantic forms occur in all the grand faunas of the Palæozoic,
with the exception of the Carboniferous where diminution in numbers
was accompanied by diminution in size, or, in other words, by the
prevalence of genera in which great size was never attained.
Almost with the earliest known appearance of the Trilobites the genus
PARADOXIDES attained magnificent proportions. _Paradoxides Harlani_,
the well-known species of the Braintree agilities, must have grown to
a length of 18 inches. ANGELIN has figured an entire specimen of _P.
Tessini_ 12 inches in length, and BARRANDE a fragment of an individual
of _P. imperialis_ which must have had about the same size. Mr. G. F.
MATTHEW has described a nearly entire individual of an immense _P.
regina_ from the St. John beds, 15 inches long and 12 inches across the
base of the cephalon, and it is claimed, with undoubted accuracy, that
this is the largest undismembered specimen of a trilobite found in any
country.
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