The Appendages, Anatomy, and Relationships of TrilobitesRaymond, Percy E. (Percy Edward)
Science
The Appendages, Anatomy, and Relationships of Trilobites
Raymond, Percy E. (Percy Edward)
Trilobites
Inner organs, such as the heart and stomach, might have been
attached to the shell along impressions a and b. Also along or
behind c and h, which both continue into the free cheeks, ligaments
or muscular fibers may have been inserted. From d, e, f, and g,
muscles have very likely gone out to the cephalic appendages.
Against this it may be urged that impression d is too far forward
to have belonged to the first pair of feet. Again, the impression h
may in reality represent two confluent muscular insertions, from
the first of which, in that case, arose the muscles of the fourth
pair of cephalic feet. Were this the case, the muscles of the first
pair of cheek feet should be attached at e. And d in turn may be
explained as the attachment of the muscles of the antennæ, k those
of the hypostoma, and from i possibly those of the epistoma. That k
is here named as the starting point of the hypostomial muscles and
not those of the antennæ, depends partly on the analogous position
of i and partly on the fact that the hypostoma of _Nileus
armadillo_ (text figure, in which the outline of the hypostoma is
dotted), by reason of it? wing-like border, could not have
permitted the antennæ to reach forward, but rather only outward or
backward.
My own explanation would be that impressions e, f, and g correspond to
the glabellar furrows, h the neck furrow, and all four show the places
of attachment of the appendifers. Those at d may possibly be connected
with the antennæ, although I should expect those organs to be attached
under the dorsal furrows at the sides of the hypostoma. It will be
noted that either b, k, or i correspond well with the maculæ of the
hypostoma and some or all of them may be the points of attachment of
hypostomial muscles. They correspond also with the anterior scars of
_Dalmanites_.
EYES.
While I have nothing to add to what has been written about the eyes of
trilobites, this sketch of the anatomy would be incomplete without
some reference to the little which has been done on the structure of
these organs.
Quenstedt (1837, p. 339) appears to have been the first to compare the
eyes of trilobites with those of other Crustacea. Johannes Müller had
pointed out in 1829 (Meckel's Archiv) that two kinds of eyes were
found in the latter group, compound eyes with a smooth cornea, and
compound eyes with a facetted coat. Quenstedt cited _Trilobites
esmarkii_ Schlotheim (=_Illænus crassicauda_ Dalman) as an example of
the first group, and _Calymene macrophthalma_ Brongniart (=_Phacops
latifrons_ Bronn) for the second. Misreading the somewhat careless
style of Quenstedt, Barrande (1852, p. 133) reverses these, one of the
few slips to be found in the voluminous writings of that remarkable
savant.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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