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
The antennules are long, slender, and flexible, and lack the formal
double curvature so characteristic of those of _Triarthrus_. There are
short fine spines on the distal rims of the segments of the proximal
half of each, thus giving great sensitiveness to these organs. In the
proximal portion of each, the individual segments are short and wider
than long, and in the distal region they are narrow and longer than
wide.
There are four pairs of biramous cephalic appendages, which differ
only very slightly from the appendages of the thorax. All are of
course excessively flattened, and they are here described as they
appear.
The coxopodites, shown for the first time in Walcott's paper of 1918,
are broad, longer than wide, and truncated on the inner ends, where
they bear short, stout, unequal spines similar to those along the
anterior margin. The gnathobases are but slightly modified to serve as
mouth parts, much less so than in _Triarthrus_, but the coxopodites
of the cephalon are shorter and wider than those of the thorax.
At the distal end of the coxopodite arise the endopodite and
exopodite. The endopodite consists of six segments, the distal ones,
propodite and dactylopodite, more slender than the others, the last
bearing three terminal spines. The first endopodite is shorter than
the others and slightly more slender (pl. 16, fig. 1)[1] and the
anterior appendages turn forward more or less parallel to the sides of
the hypostoma (pl. 22). The basipodite, ischiopodite, meropodite, and
carpopodite are, in their flattened condition, roughly rectangular,
only a little longer than wide, taper gradually distally, each bears
small spines on the outer rim, and some of the proximal ones usually
have a row along the margin.
[Footnote 1: _Nota bene!_ All references in this section are to the
plates of Doctor Walcott's paper in 1918.]
The exopodites of the cephalon, as of the body of Neolenus, are very
different from those of any other trilobite whose appendages were
previously known. As shown in the photographs (pl. 20, fig. 2; pl.
22), each exopodite consists of a single long, broad, leaf-like blade,
not with many segments as in _Triarthrus_, but consisting of a large
basal and small terminal lobe. It bears on its outer margin numerous
relatively short, slender, flat setæ. The long axes of the exopodites
point forward, and the setæ are directed forward and outward. They
stand more nearly at right angles to the shaft on the cephalic
exopodites than on those of the thorax. This same type of broad-bladed
exopodite is also found on the thorax and pygidium.
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