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
3. The importance of the trilobate form of the trilobite is very much
overestimated. It and the pygidium are due solely to functional
requirements. The axial lobe contained practically all the vital
organs and the side lobes were mechanical in origin and secondarily
protective. That the crustacean is not trilobate is frequently
asserted by zoologists, yet every text-book contains a picture of a
segment of a lobster with its axial and pleural lobes. It is a
fundamental structure among the Crustacea, obscured because most of
them are compressed rather than depressed.
4. The pygidium of trilobites is compared with the metasomatic shield
of _Limulus_. No homology, if homology is intended, could be more
erroneous. The metasomatic shield of _Limulus_ is, as shown by
ontogeny and phylogeny, formed by the fusion of segments formerly
free, and includes the segments between the cephalic and anal shields,
or what would be known as the thorax of a trilobite. No trilobite
has a metasomatic shield. The pygidium of a trilobite, as shown by
ontogeny, is built up by growth in front of the anal region, and since
the segments were never free, it can not strictly be said to be
composed of fused segments. Some Crustacea do form a pygidial shield,
as in certain orders of the Isopoda.
5. The post-anal spine of Dalmanites and some other trilobites is
similar to that of _Limulus_, but this seems a point of no especial
significance. That a similar spine has not been developed in the
Crustacea is probably due to the fact that they do not have the broad
depressed shape which makes it so difficult for a _Limulus_ to right
itself when once turned on its back. Relatively few trilobites have
it, and it is probably correlated with some special adaptation.
6. There is nothing among the trilobites comparable to the movable
lateral spines of the metasoma of _Limulus_.
While, as classifications are made up, the Trilobita must be placed in
the Crustacea rather than the Arachnida, there is no reason why both
the modern Crustacea and the Arachnida should not be derived from the
trilobites.
MEROSTOMATA.
It has been a custom of long standing to compare the trilobite with
_Limulus_. Packard (1872) gave great vitality to the theory of
the close affinity of the two when he described the so-called
trilobite-stage in the development of _Limulus polyphemus_. His
influence on Walcott's ideas (1881) is obvious. Lankester has gone
still further, and associated the Trilobita with the Merostomata in
the Arachnida.
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