The Appendages, Anatomy, and Relationships of Trilobites — John Shaqi
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
Spiral Branchiæ.
It is now necessary to inquire if the thin sections can not be
interpreted on the basis of trilobites with the same organs as
_Triarthrus_. The interpretation of the structures seen in these
translucent slices is exceedingly difficult, and Doctor Walcott
deserves the utmost praise for the acumen with which he drew his
deductions. Even with the present knowledge of _Triarthrus_,
_Isotelus_, and _Neolenus_ as a guide, I do not think it is safe to
speak dogmatically about what one sees in them.
Walcott has summarized his results in his restoration of the
appendages of _Calymene_ (1918, pl. 33). The coxopodite supports a
slender six-jointed endopodite as in _Triarthrus_, dorsal to which is
a short setiferous epipodite which differs from the exopodite of
_Triarthrus_, in being less long, unsegmented, and in having shorter
setæ. Arising from the same part of the coxopodite with this epipodite
is the bifurcate spiral branchia which has not been seen in this form
in other trilobites. The evidence on which the existence of this organ
is postulated consists of a series of sections across the thorax, the
best of them figured by Walcott in his plates 2 and 3 (1881) and plate
27 (1918).
The specimens sliced were all partially or quite enrolled, and in that
position one would expect to find the appendages so displaced that it
would be only rarely that a section would be cut, either by chance or
design, in such a direction as to show any considerable part of any
one appendage. This expectation has proved true in regard to the
endopodites, the sections rarely showing more than two or three
consecutive segments. Sections like those shown in figures 1 and 2
in plate 2 (1881) seem to be unique. On the other hand, there are
numerous slices showing the so-called spiral branchiæ. They show for
the most part as a succession of rectangular to kidney-shaped spots
of clear calcite.[1] Usually these clear spots are isolated, not
confluent, but in a small number of specimens, perhaps three or four,
the spots are connected in such a way as to show a zig-zag band which
suggests a spiral. Such an explanation is of course entirely
reasonable, but it would be surprising if so slender a spiral should
be cut in such a way as to exhibit the large series of successive
turns shown in many of these thin sections. Continuous sections of
such organs should be no more common than continuous sections of
endopodites.
[Footnote 1: In looking at Walcott's figures of 1881, it should be
remembered that the dark portions of the figures are clear calcite in
the specimens, while the light part is the more or less opaque
matrix.]
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