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
Considering, first, the position of the appendages in crawling, it
appears that different trilobites used their appendages in different
ways. _Neolenus_ had compact stocky legs, which allowed little play of
one segment on another, as is shown by the wide joints at right angles
to the axis of the segment. Such limbs were stiff enough to support
the body when the animal was crawling beneath the water, where of
course it weighed but little. That such a crawling attitude was
adopted by trilobites has been shown by Walcott in his explanation of
the trails known as _Protichnites_ (1912 B, p. 278). Many trilobites
probably crawled in this way, on the tips of the toes, so to speak.
In such the limbs would probably extend downward and outward, with the
flattened sides vertical.
The limb of _Triarthrus_, however, is of another type. The endopodites
are long, slender, flexibly jointed, the whole endopodite probably too
flexible to be used as a unit as a leg must be in walking on the
"toes." The proximal segments of the thoracic and pygidial endopodites
are, however, triangular instead of straight-sided, and, the
spine-bearing apex of the triangle being ventral, it enabled the
endopodites to get a grip on the bottom and thus push the animal
forward. This method of progression was more clumsy and less rapid
than that of Neolenus, but it sufficed. The natural position of the
endopodite when used in this way would seem to be with the flattened
sides of the segments standing at an angle of 30 to 45 with the
vertical, thus allowing a good purchase on the bottom and at the same
time offering the minimum resistance to the water when moving the
appendages forward.
_Isotelus_ has endopodites different from those of either _Neolenus_
or _Triarthrus_. They are composed of cylindrical segments, the joints
indicating a certain amount of flexibility. Since there is no method
by which the segments may get a purchase on the bottom other than by
pushing with the distal ends, it would seem at first thought that
_Isotelus_, like Neolenus, crawled on its "toes." The endopodites
of _Isotelus_ are however, short and feeble when compared with
the size of the test, while the endobases of the coxopodites are
extraordinarily developed. These facts, together with certain trails,
strongly suggest the use of the coxopodites as the primary ambulatory
organs, the endopodites probably assisting. In this event, the
position of the endopodites and coxopodites would be downward, both
outward and inward from the point of attachment, and the motion both
backward and forward. The fact that in the specimens as preserved the
coxopodites point backward and the endopodites forward indicates that
the limb as a whole swung on a pivot at the appendifer. It is of
course natural to suggest that the coxopodites and endopodites of all
the trilobites with wide axial lobes, _Nileus_, _Bumastus_,
_Homalonotus_, etc., were developed in this same way.
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