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
There is one pair of appendifers on each of the thoracic segments and
four pairs on the pygidium. On the cephalon there is one pair under
the neck furrow, and a pair under the posterior glabellar furrows.
These are not concealed by the hypostoma. Further forward, and
completely covered by the hypostoma, are two much less strongly
developed but similar ones, so that there are in all four pairs of
appendifers on the cephalon, though it is extremely doubtful if the
appendages were articulated directly to all of them. On a specimen of
_Ceraurus pleurexanthemus_ 30 mm. long on the median line, the dorsal
furrows are 7.5 mm. apart at the anterior end of the thorax, and the
tips of the appendifers of this segment are only 4 mm. apart. Each
consists of a straight slender rod with a knoblike end projecting
directly downward from the dorsal test, and supported by a thin
calcareous plate which runs diagonally forward to the anterior edge of
the segment directly under the dorsal furrow. On the pygidium three
pairs of the appendifers have this form, while the fourth pair consist
of low rounded tubercles which are concealed by the doublure. These
appendifers are probably cut in many of Walcott's sections of
Ceraurus, but owing to the state of preservation it is not always
possible to determine what part is appendage, what part is body
cavity, and what part is appendifer.
Nearly forty years ago Von Koenen (1880, p. 431, pl. 8, figs. 9, 10)
described and figured the appendifers of Phacops latifrons. He found
them to be calcareous projections on the hinder margin of each
segment, converging inward, and about 1.5 mm. long. He correctly
considered them as supports (Stützpunkte) for the feet.
Appendifers are well developed also in Pliomerops, and in well
preserved specimens of _Calymene senaria_ from Trenton Falls they are
present, but instead of being rod-like processes, they are rather
thick, prominent folds of the shell. They are also well shown in some
of the thin sections. A specimen of _Triarthrus_ (No. 229, our pl. 5,
fig. 2) has broad processes extending downward from the lower side of
the test below the dorsal furrows, much as in _Calymene_, and the
individual of _Cryptolithus_ shown in plate 8, figure 1, possesses
slender appendifers. Two other specimens (Nos. 237 and 242) show them
quite well. They were probably present in all trilobites, but seldom
preserved. The appendifers have the same origin as the entopophyses of
_Limulus_, and like them, may have relatively little effect on the
dorsal surface.
_Calymene senaria_ Conrad.
(Text figs. 13-16, 23.)
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