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
Corda (1847) made a number of claims for appendages, but all were
shown by Barrande (1852) to be erroneous.
Barrande (1852, 1872) gave a somewhat incomplete summary of the
various attempts to describe the appendages of trilobites, concluding
that none showed any evidence of other than soft appendages, until
Billings' discovery of 1870.
Volborth (1863) described a long chambered tubular organ in _Illænus_
which he believed to represent a cast of the heart of a trilobite, but
which has since been likened by writers to the intestinal tract in
"_Trinucleus_."
PART I.
THE APPENDAGES OF TRILOBITES.
Terminology.
The terminology employed in the succeeding pages is essentially the
same as that used by Beecher, with two new terms added. Beecher
assigned to the various segments of the limbs the names suggested by
Huxley, but sometimes used the name protopodite instead of coxopodite
for the proximal one. It is obvious that he did not use protopodite in
the correct sense, as indicating a segment formed by the fusion of the
coxopodite and basipodite. The usage employed here is shown in figure
1.
[Illustration: Fig. 1.--_Triarthrus becki_ Green. Diagram of one of
the limbs of the thorax, viewed from above, with the endopodite in
advance of the exopodite. 1, coxopodite, the inner extension being
the endobase (gnathobase on cephalon); 2, basipodite, springing from
the coxopodite, and supporting the exopodite, which also rests upon
the coxopodite; 3, ischiopodite; 4, meropodite; 5, carpopodite; 6,
propodite; 7, dactylopodite, with terminal spines.]
The investigation of _Ceraurus_ showed that the appendages were
supported by processes extending downward from the dorsal test,
and on comparison with other trilobites it appeared that the same was
true in _Calymene_, _Cryptolithus_, _Neolenus_, and other genera. Thin
sections showed that these processes were formed by invagination of
the test beneath the dorsal and glabellar furrows. While these
processes are entirely homologous with the entopophyses of _Limulus_,
I have chosen to apply the name _appendifer_ to them in the
trilobites.
The only other new term employed is the substitution of _endobase_ for
gnathobase in speaking of the inner prolongation of a coxopodite of
the trunk region. The term gnathobase implies a function which can not
in all cases be proved.
The individual portions of which the limbs are made up are called
_segments_, and the articulations between them, _joints_. Such a
procedure is unusual, but promotes clearness.
The Appendages of Neolenus.
HISTORICAL.
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