The Cambridge natural history, Vol. 01 (of 10)Hickson, Sydney J. (Sydney John)
Science
The Cambridge natural history, Vol. 01 (of 10)
Hickson, Sydney J. (Sydney John)
Animals
_Phialidium temporarium_ is one of the commonest Medusae of our coast, and
sometimes occurs in shoals. It seems probable that it is the Medusa of
_Clytia johnstoni_.[319] By some authors the jelly-fish known as
_Epenthesis_ is also believed to be the Medusa of a _Clytia_.
FAM. DENDROGRAPTIDAE.—This family includes a number of fossils which have
certain distinct affinities with the Calyptoblastea. In _Dictyonema_,
common in the Ordovician rocks of Norway, but also found in the Palaeozoic
rocks of North America and elsewhere, the fossil forms fan-shaped colonies
of delicate filaments, united by many transverse commissures, and in
well-preserved specimens the terminal branches bear well-marked uniserial
hydrothecae. In some species thecae of a different character, which have
been interpreted to be gonothecae and nematophores respectively, are found.
Other genera are _Dendrograptus_, _Thamnograptus_, and several others from
Silurian strata.
ORDER V. GRAPTOLITOIDEA.
A large number of fossils, usually called Graptolites, occurring in
Palaeozoic strata, are generally regarded as the skeletal remains of an
ancient group of Hydrozoa.
In the simpler forms the fossil consists of a delicate straight rod bearing
on one side a series of small cups. It is suggested that the cups contained
hydroid zooids, and should therefore be regarded as the equivalent of the
hydrothecae, and that the axis represents the axis of the colony or of a
branch of the Calyptoblastea. In some of the forms with two rows of cups on
the axis (_Diplograptus_), however, it has been shown that the cups are
absent from a considerable portion of one end of the axis, and that the
axes of several radially arranged individuals are fused together and united
to a central circular plate. Moreover, there is found in many specimens a
series of vesicles, a little larger in size than the cups, attached to the
plate and arranged in a circle at the base of the axes. These vesicles are
called the gonothecae.
The discovery of the central plate and of the so-called {282}gonothecae
suggests that the usual comparison of a Graptolite with a Sertularian
Hydroid is erroneous, and that the colony or individual, when alive, was a
more or less radially symmetrical floating form, like a Medusa, of which
only the distal appendages (possibly tentacles) are commonly preserved as
fossils.
The evidence that the Graptolites were Hydrozoa is in reality very slight,
but the proof of their relationship to any other phylum of the animal
kingdom does not exist.[320] It is therefore convenient to consider them in
this place, and to regard them, provisionally, as related to the
Calyptoblastea.
The order is divided into three families.
FAM. 1. MONOPRIONIDAE.—Cups arranged uniserially on one side of the axis.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account