Researches on the Visual Organs of the TrilobitesLindström, Gustaf
Science
Researches on the Visual Organs of the Trilobites
Lindström, Gustaf
Trilobites
We have not succeeded in finding any hypostoma, but as the structure
of the cephalic eyes is sufficiently well preserved, we here describe
it. The lenses seen from the surface look globular, and in a vertical
section they are ovate and in a horizontal circular. They are
covered by a very thin and delicate membrane, that envelops their
superior moiety completely and between the eyes it is enclosed by the
surrounding test and growing out from it. In the horizontal section,
fig. 45, it looks as a circular frame around the lenses and the
membranes of two contiguous lenses sometimes lie so close, that they
entirely fill up the interspace between the lenses, leaving only a
narrow slit between them marking their boundaries. The space between
the lenses, fig. 46, is porous, being perforated by tubes, which
continue vertically down through the shell of the cheek.
_Dalm. sclerops_ DALMAN.
Pl. IV fig. 3.
Commonly this species has been ranged with Phacops, but it is evident
that it as to the conformation of its glabella and the head in general
is highly discrepant, and in these respects is more concordant with
Dalmanites, though still deviating as for instance in the pygidium and
some details of the head. Therefore it may be justified with FRIEDR.
SCHMIDT[41] to consider it as a generic division, though not, as he has
it, as an independent genus, but as a subgenus of Dalmanites.
[Footnote 41: Revision, I, p. 76.]
The granulated hypostoma differs from that of Dalmanites proper in
having the anterior margin strongly arched, the pointed wings almost
on the median line of the hypostoma. There is one groove near the
posterior border and the maculæ lie as two, narrow long, crescentic
grooves close below the wings. The few sections give no clear idea of
any structure.
The cephalic eyes are constructed on the same plan as in the previous
species, the lenses being surrounded by a frame.
_Dalm. vulgaris_ SALTER.
Pl. III figs. 47-52.
The hypostoma has the common shield-like shape, fig. 51, anteriorly
slightly arcuated, the short obtuse wings curvated towards the interior
surface. It is finely granulated. The groove does not go so near the
cuspidate posterior margin as in other species. The two maculæ, fig.
52, are narrow and elliptic, somewhat convex and lie in a little
concavity, a narrow smooth space around is devoid of the granules,
which cover the surface of the rest. They show absolutely no structure,
excepting a few indistinct blackish spots.
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