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
In both there are five pairs of cephalic and eight of thoracic
appendages, while those of the abdomen of Hymenocaris are not known.
In both, the antennules are less developed than the antennæ. In the
Nebaliidæ the antennules show evidence of having been originally
double (they are obviously so in the embryo), while they are single in
_Hymcnocaris_. In both, the antennæ are simple. The remaining cephalic
organs are too little shown by the specimen from the Middle Cambrian
to allow detailed comparison. The mandibles, maxillulæ, and maxillæ of
_Nebalia_ are, however, of types which could be derived from the
trilobite.
In three of the genera of the Nebaliidæ, the eight pairs of thoracic
limbs are all similar to one another, though those of the genera
differ. All are biramous. The limbs of _Hymcnocaris_ can apparently be
most closely correlated with those of _Nebalia antarctica_, in which
the endopodite consists of short flattened segments, and the exopodite
is a long setiferous plate. Epipodites are present in both _Nebalia_
and _Hymcnocaris_.
So far as the appendages of _Hymenocaris_ are known, they agree very
well with those of the Nebaliidæ, and since they are of the trilobite
type, it may safely be stated that the Trilobita and Malacostraca are
closely related.
_2. Syncarida._
Walcott (1918, p. 170) has compared the limbs of _Neolenus_ with those
of the syncarid genera _Anaspides_ and _Koonunga_. These are primitive
Malacostraca without a carapace, but as they have a compressed test
and _Anaspides_ has stalked eyes, their gross anatomy does not suggest
the trilobite. The thoracic appendages are very trilobite-like, since
the endopodite has six segments (in _Anaspides_) and a multisegmented
setiferous exopodite. The coxopodites, except of the first thoracic
segment, do not, however, show endobases, and those which are
present are peculiar articulated ones. The cephalic appendages are
specialized, and the antennules double as in most of the Malacostraca.
External epipodites are very numerous on the anterior limbs.
This group extends back as far as the Pennsylvanian and had then
probably already become adapted to fresh-water life. It may be
significant that the Palæozoic syncarids appear to have lacked
epipodites. While differing very considerably from the Trilobita, the
Syncarida could have been derived from them.
_3. Isopoda._
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