Here the drawing distinctly suggests that one of the extra
dactylopodites, namely that lettered R, is differentiated as a left
and not merely a reversed right. For the teeth on this dactylopodite
are those of a cutting claw, not of a crushing claw, whereas the
dactylopodites R' and L' bear crushing teeth. The figure makes it fairly
certain also that the limb affected was a crushing claw. Accepting this
interpretation, we reach the remarkable conclusion that the bud of new
growth consisted of halves differentiated into cutter and crusher as the
normal claws are, and that the extra crusher is geometrically a left
but physiologically a right. Though shaped as a left in respect of the
direction in which it points, the extra crusher is really an optically
reversed right, while the dactylopodite R, which is placed pointing like
a right, is really a reversed left (Fig. 12).
[Illustration: FIG. 12. Right claw of lobster bearing a pair of extra
dactylopodites (after van Beneden). The fine toothing on R suggests that
this is part of a cutting claw, though the limb bearing it is a crusher.]
If these indications are reliable[9] and are established by further
observation we shall be led to the conclusion that the bud which
becomes an extra pair of limbs does not merely contain the parts proper
to the side on which it grows, but is comparable with the original
zygotic cell, and consists not simply of two halves, but of two halves
differentiated as a right and a left like the two halves of the normal
body.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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