Researches on the Visual Organs of the TrilobitesLindström, Gustaf
Science
Researches on the Visual Organs of the Trilobites
Lindström, Gustaf
Trilobites
The peculiar nature of these macula is revealed through the various
sections we have made. In pl. I fig. 15 a vertical section across the
entire hypostoma is represented. The sectioned, dark maculæ (a) lie on
both sides of the faintly curved central field, in the sinus of the
lateral grooves, and the strongly developed terrace lines continue
sidewards just a little on the interior side, where the duplicature
turns round. As seen in a magnified vertical section (fig. 16) the
maculæ consist of horizontal, whitish, straight lines, probably lines
of successive growth, and these are crossed rectangularly by more
irregular whitish lines separated from each other through dark spaces.
The whole thus gains the aspect of a dark surface cancellated by white
lines. This reticulated or spongious macula is enclosed as to its
superior as well as to its inferior part in the compact and homogenous
test of the hypostoma and occluded from the influence of the light. Its
value as a visual organ consequently is insignificant. In a horizontal
section (fig. 17) the structure is still more bewildering. There the
whole macula is a confused, spongious white mass with dark spaces
between the white meshes, and only at one side, the left one, some
obscure indications as of polygones are visible. It would indeed have
been impossible to interprete what this means, had not the study of the
cephalic eye given a clue thereof.
The eye of this species is covered with a delicate perfectly smooth
and glossy integument (f. 12) which is reposing immediately on the
prismatic lenses of the cornea. In a few instances, depending on the
colour or the state of preservation of that integument the lenses are
indistinctly translucent. Owing to their state of preservation their
aspect is greatly variable. They are in many instances, as seen in
fig. 9, six-sided or some rhombic, foursided or even quadratic (f.
8, 10). They are all of the same length, 0,2 mm. along the surface
proper of the eye, but are lengthened to 0,3 mm. towards the border
of the eyes, f. 12, which will be described further on; they are of
equal breadth, amounting to 0,066 mm. Their inferior ends are slightly
convex or nearly plane when well preserved, else, when as often is the
case, disintegrated as to be scooped out and vaulted. Their interior
structure, as revealed by sections, shows a cylindrical core, f. 8-10,
composed of concentric strata. This cylinder fills nearly the whole
interior space of the prisms, there being, however, in many instances
a compact dark mass between the cylinder and the walls of the prisms.
There are also sections in which the prisms are filled with a uniformly
black mass without any concentric structure. In longitudinal sections
the outlines of the individual prisms are not clearly discernible (f.
11). There are longitudinal, white lines of varying thickness with
lateral irregular offshoots, which may join with those from opposite
walls, and give the interior a sort of spongious or cancellate
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