Researches on the Visual Organs of the TrilobitesLindström, Gustaf
Science
Researches on the Visual Organs of the Trilobites
Lindström, Gustaf
Trilobites
4. _Suture._ A suture dividing the fixed cheeks in two pair viz.
two fixed cheeks and two free cheeks. Fully developed facial ridge.
Oldest known adult forms are Ellipsocephalus, Arionellus, already in
the Lowest Cambrian, the Olenellus beds, what presupposes a long,
antecedent lineage far back in the precambrian times. Corresponding
larval stage in Sao, BARR. pl. 7 figs 10-13. The plurality of Cambrian
trilobites belong here. An intermediate stage leading to the next is
seen in such forms in which the ridge posteriorly is widened into the
»eye lobe», which rests in the scallop of the free cheek. So it is in
Liostracus and many others besides. Solenopleura possibly oculate.
III.
5. Globular eyes. Cambrian, in the youngest zone, the Olenus schists.
The oldest at present known oculate trilobite Eurycare is found in the
second division of these schists.
In the lowest Lower Silurian division, the Ceratopyge limestone, Euloma
and Ceratopyge occur as the last survivors of the blind, partially
ridge bearing genera. The Trinucleidæ and Ampyx belong to another group
of trilobites.
Even among other exclusively Lower Silurian genera, in which the
plurality of the species is oculate, there are species entirely blind.
So with Illænus, in which genus Dr HOLM has not found any eye in Ill.
Angelini, I. leptopleura and Ill. cæcus. The free cheek in these three
species is much narrow, as the facial suture lies near the margin of
the head.
=The eyes of the Trilobites.=
If, as is probable, to judge by the conformity of their cornea with
that of recent crustacea, the trilobites like these were provided with
crystalline cones beneath the corneal lenses or facets, only the latter
have been preserved in a fossil state. Although the crystalline cones
in consequence of their solid consistence might have been petrified
as well as the cornea, they must, imbedded as these tiny cones lie,
entirely wrapped up in delicate tissues, fall away and be lost, when
the dissolution of the dead body had set in. Consequently the curious
appendages on the inferior side of the lenses in Dalmanites vulgaris
(Pl. III f. 50) or Phacops quadrilineata (Pl. V fig. 38) can noways
be considered as belonging to the original structure of the eye,
apart from their great dissimilarity with anything appertaining to
the eyes of the Arthropoda. The cornea on the contrary cohered with
the integument of the body, and it has been well preserved in a great
number of trilobites.
I subdivide the trilobites in respect to the form of their eyes in the
following manner:
=I. Genera with compound eyes.=
1. _With prismatic plano-convex cornea facets._
Acidaspis, as a transitional form to the next group.
Asaphus.
Bumastus.
Cyphaspis.
Dysplanus.
Encrinurus.
Illænus.
Megalaspis.
Nileus.
Phillipsia.
Niobe.
Proetus.
Ptychopyge.
Symphysurus.
2. _With round or biconvex transversally elongate lenses._
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