"The structures appear to be allied more closely to Cryptozoon than to
Eozoon. The microscopic structure is most easily recognised in the
earthy (as distinguished from the calcareous) layers, and consists
of minute branching canals. Under a one-inch objective the smaller
canals have the appearance of minute threads, which run sometimes for a
distance of two millimetres without branching. The larger canals branch
more frequently and are more sinuous. The canals cross and anastomose
with each other; they run chiefly at right angles to the axis of the
fossil, and appear to branch most in going outward from the centre.
More rarely they ascend from the earthy to the calcareous layer,
branching upward."
[Footnote 54: Bulletin No. ix., Nat. Hist. Soc of New Brunswick, 1890.]
In limestone of the Upper Laurentian, near St. John, New Brunswick.
* * * * *
D. Cryptozoon.
The description above given of Archæozoon very naturally leads us to
consider the allied Cambrian and pre-Cambrian forms known as Cryptozoon.
This remarkable and problematical type was first described by Prof.
James Hall in the Appendix to his Annual Report of 1882 (No. 26). It
is a large massive organism, occurring abundantly on the surface of a
limestone of Calciferous (Upper Cambrian) age at Greenfield, Saratoga
County, New York. The individuals sometimes attain a diameter of two
feet, and are often surrounded by smaller specimens apparently budding
off from them. Like Stromatoporæ, they consist of concentric laminæ,
but these are concave upward, giving a bowl-shaped form to the summits
of the individuals. Prof Hall describes them as "made up of irregular
concentric laminæ of greater or less density, and of very unequal
thickness. The substance between the concentric lines in well-preserved
specimens is traversed by numerous minute irregular canaliculi which
branch and anastomose without regularity. The central portion of
the masses is usually filled with crystalline granular and Oolitic
material, and many specimens show the intrusion of these extraneous and
inorganic substances between the laminæ."
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