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
When both endopodites and the "spiral branchiæ" are present in the
same section (pl. 1, fig. 4; pl. 2, figs. 1, 2), the "spiral branchiæ"
are dorsal to the endopodites, as the setæ of the exopodites would be
expected to be. The specimens which show the clear spots connected,
and which suggest a spiral (pl. 3, fig. 5), may seem at first sight to
bear evidence against this interpretation, but one has only to think
of the effect of cutting a section along the edge where the setæ are
attached to the shaft of the exopodite of _Triarthrus_ to see that
such a zig-zag effect is entirely possible. One would expect to cut
just this position only rarely, and, in fact, the zig-zags are seen in
only three or four sections. The bifurcation of the basal segment of
the "spiral branchiæ" (pl. 3, fig. 10, 1881) is probably more apparent
than real, if indeed these basal segments have anything to do with the
succeeding one.
A second peculiarity of _Calymene_, shown in Walcott's restoration, is
the great enlargement of the coxopodites and of the distal segments of
the endopodites of the fifth pair of appendages of the cephalon. This
is based on the sections of plate 3, figures 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 (1881).
After a study of the specimens I regret to find myself still
unconvinced that the posterior cephalic appendages were any larger
than those in front.
Ventral Membrane.
The most striking value of the thin sections of _Ceraurus_ and
_Calymene_, and therein they have a great superiority over all the
other forms so far investigated, is that they show the extent of the
body cavity and the position, though not the substance, of the ventral
membrane. Transverse sections through _Ceraurus_ (Walcott's pl. 1.
figs. 1-5; pl. 2, figs. 1, 3, 1881) and _Calymene_ (pl. 3, figs. 9,
10, 1881) show that the body cavity was almost entirely confined to
the axial lobe. The longitudinal sections of _Ceraurus_ (pl. 2, figs.
6, 8; pl. 4, fig. 8) and of _Calymene_ (pl. 2, figs. 5, 7; pl. 5,
figs. 1-4) show that the ventral membrane was exceedingly thin and was
wrinkled transversely when the shell was enrolled.
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