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
All in which the various appendages are preserved prove to have a pair
of antennules, four pairs of biramous limbs on the cephalon, as many
pairs of biramous limbs as there are segments in the thorax, and
a variable number of pairs on the pygidium, with, in the case of
_Neolenus_ alone, a pair of tactile organs at the posterior end. Each
limb, whether of cephalon, thorax, or pygidium, consists of a
coxopodite, which is attached on its dorsal side to the ventral
integument and supported by an appendifer, an exopodite, and an
endopodite. The exopodite is setiferous, and the shaft is of variable
form, consisting of one, two, or numerous segments. The endopodite
always has six segments, the distal one armed with short movable
spines.
_Coxopodite._
The coxopodite does not correspond to the protopodite of higher
Crustacea, the basipodite remaining as a separate entity. The inner
end of the coxopodite is prolonged into a flattened or cylindrical
process, which on the cephalon is more or less modified to assist in
feeding, and so becomes a gnathobase or gnathite. The inner ends of
the coxopodites of the thorax and pygidium are also prolonged in a
similar fashion, but are generally somewhat less modified. These
organs also undoubtedly assisted in carrying food forward to the
mouth, but since they probably had other functions as well, I prefer
to give them the more non-committal name of endobases.
In _Triarthrus_ and _Neolenus_ the endobases are flattened and taper
somewhat toward the inward end. In _Isotelus_, _Calymene_ and
_Ceraurus_, they appear to have been cylindrical. In other genera they
are not yet well known. In all cases, particularly about the mouth,
they appear to have been directed somewhat backward from the point of
attachment. As it is supposed that these organs moved freely forward
and backward, the position in which they occur in the best preserved
fossils should indicate something of their natural position when
muscles were relaxed.
_Cephalon._
_Antennules._--Antennules are known in _Triarthrus_, _Cryptolithus_,
_Neolenus_, and _Ptychoparia_. In all they are long, slender, and
composed of numerous segments, which are spiniferous in _Neolenus_,
and very probably so in the other genera.
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