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
A point in which Walcott differs from Beecher in the interpretation of
specimens is in regard to the development of the endopodites of small
pygidia. Beecher (1894 B, pl. 7, fig. 3) illustrated a series of
endopodites which he likened to the endites of a thoracic limb of
_Apus_. Doctor Walcott finds that specimens in the United States
National Museum show slender endopodites all the way to the back of
the pygidium, and thinks that Beecher mistook a mass of terminal
segments of exopodites for a series of endopodites. On careful
examination, however, the specimen shows, as Beecher indicated, a
series of endopodites in undisturbed condition (No. 222, our pl. 4,
fig. 5).
_Restoration of Triarthrus._
One of the more important points noted in the later studies of
_Triarthrus_ is that the gnathites of the cephalic appendages are much
less like the endobases under the thorax than Beecher earlier thought,
and showed in his restored figures and in his model. The four
gnathites of each side are curved, flattened, not club-shaped, and
so wide and so close together that they overlap one another. The
metastoma is somewhat larger and more nearly circular than Beecher's
earlier preparations led him to suppose.
The restoration here presented is modified only slightly from the
one designed by Professor Beecher, and the modifications are taken
principally from figures published by him. The gnathites are drawn in
form more like that shown by the specimens and his figures in the
American Geologist (1895 A), and the metastoma is taken from one of
the specimens. On the thorax the chief modification is in the addition
of a considerable number of spines to the endopodites. In spite of the
trivial character of most of these changes, they emphasize one of the
important characteristics of _Triarthrus_ the regional differentiation
of the appendages.
It should be pointed out that although _Triarthrus_ is usually
considered to be a very primitive trilobite, its appendages are more
specialized than those of any of the others known. This is shown in
their great length, the double curvature of the antennules, the
differentiation of four pairs of endobases on the cephalon as
gnathites, and the flattening of the segments of the posterior
endopodites. These departures from the uniformity existing among the
appendages of the other genera lead one to question whether the genus
is really so primitive as has been supposed.
_Relation of the Cephalic Appendages to the Markings on the Dorsal
Surface of the Glabella._
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