Researches on the Visual Organs of the Trilobites — John Shaqi
Researches on the Visual Organs of the TrilobitesLindström, Gustaf
Science
Researches on the Visual Organs of the Trilobites
Lindström, Gustaf
Trilobites
In scrutinizing a horizontal, somewhat extensive section of an eye in
this group of trilobites, it will be perceived, as for instance in the
figures (Pl. V fig. 16, 22) that the regular and evidently homogenous
and intact prismatic lenses by and by have been altered and in a part
of the section, a little distant from the intact ones disintegrated
in their interior, showing various aspects of alteration. I cannot
but think that this is a destruction which has set in long after
the fossilization. It has revealed certain states of the intimate
structure, certain delicate details, that now with an astonishing
regularity come in sight and probably also lie hidden in the intact
prisms. In the specimens of Asaphus, which we have studied, the
alteration has taken the shape of a concentric stratification forming
the body of the prisms, which is well discernible in a horizontal
section, but not easy to detect in the longitudinal one (Pl. I figs
9-10, 11). It is likewise so in Niobe. In the other genera again the
decomposition makes the prisms look like empty tubes in which a few
irregular traverses and trabecular remains of their solid mass radiate
towards the interior. They thus assume the aspect of a composite coral
with its septa in the calicles (Pl. VI fig. 31). This is also evident
in Nileus palpebrosus and Dysplanus.
=2. Eyes with biconvex lenses.=
The surface of the eye is, as in Chirurus glaber ANG., a mass of
contiguous hemispherical lenses, probably once covered with a membrane,
as is still to be seen in well preserved specimens of Bronteus
laticauda. Both in Chirurus and Bronteus the lenses seen vertically are
globular and ordinated beside each other either continuous or separated
only through a faint dividing line. In a horizontal section passing
right through the point of contact they show the common hexaedral
shape and when somewhat corroded the interior radiate structure also
comes forth, the radii directed towards a little black point in the
centre. The lenses of the Brontei have the same stellate structure
as in Bumastus (Pl. II fig. 7). In Cyrtometopus the lenses are in
size the fourth of those in Chirurus and they form an extremely
thin stratum in strongest contrast with the adjoining cheek, which
surpasses them more than six times in thickness (Pl. III fig. 19). The
lenses of Cyrtometopus are more flattened and irregular than in the
former genera. The free cheek around the eyes does not form a border
zone, somewhat imitating the eye structure as in Asaphus, but is more
compact, composed of vertical elements which give to the test of the
trilobites in general a tendency to split up in vertical prisms.
Of a peculiar interest are the eyes in the oldest of all oculate
trilobites, at present with certainty known, Eurycare, Peltura,
Sphærophthalmus and Ctenopyge.
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