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
Viewed from the upper surface, it shows a large part of the test,
but is broken along the sides, so that parts of the free cheeks,
considerable of the pleural lobes of the thorax, and one side of the
pygidium are missing. Viewed from the lower surface, the appendages
are practically confined to the cephalon and thorax.
A short time before his death, Professor Beecher had this specimen and
succeeded in cleaning away a part of the matrix so that the appendages
show somewhat more clearly than in Billings' time, but they are not so
well preserved as on the Mickleborough specimen, found in Ohio
somewhat later.
The hypostoma is in place and well preserved; the posterior points are
but 3 mm. in advance of the posterior margin of the cephalon. Behind
the hypostoma there are only two pairs of cephalic appendages, the
first of which is represented by the coxopodite and a trace of the
endopodite. The outer end of the coxopodite is close to the outer
margin of one of the prongs of the hypostoma and about 3 mm. in front
of its posterior end. The gnathobase curves backward and inward, and
appears to pass under the tip of the hypostoma. There were probably
two appendages in front of this, whose gnathobases projected under the
hypostoma, but the specimen shows nothing of them unless it be that
one small fragment about 2 mm. back of the center is really a part of
a gnathobase.
The specimen retains only the coxopodite and basipodite of the
posterior cephalic appendage on the left side. The coxopodite is
long and apparently cylindrical, the cross-section being of uniform
diameter throughout the length. The inner portion is nearly straight,
while the outer part is curved gently forward.
It is possible to make out remains of eight pairs of appendages on the
thorax, some of them represented by coxopodites only, but most with
more or less poorly preserved endopodites as well. No exopodites are
visible. The coxopodites of the thorax seem to be of the same form
as the last one on the cephalon, but slightly less curved. All are
long and heavy, and there seems to be no decrease in size toward the
pygidium. The endopodites are very imperfectly shown. They seem to be
longer than those of _Isotelus maximus_, and the segments, while of
less diameter than the coxopodites, do not show so great a contrast to
them as do those of that species. The direction of the endopodites is
diagonally forward, and the outer portions do not appear to be curved
backward as in _Isotelus maximus_. It would appear also that the
endopodites were nearly or quite long enough to reach the outer margin
of the dorsal test. On no endopodite can more than three segments be
definitely distinguished, but the longest ones are the most obscurely
segmented.
No appendages are preserved on the pygidium, but at one side of the
median groove there are two projections which may be processes to
which the appendages were attached.
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