=Corals= are very rarely found in the Cambrian, and the description of
their primitive types is postponed to later chapters treating of
periods when they became more numerous.
=Echinoderms.= This subkingdom comprises at present such familiar
forms as the crinoid, the starfish, and the sea urchin. The structure
of echinoderms is radiate. Their integument is hardened with plates or
particles of carbonate of lime.
[Illustration: Fig. 267. Cystoids, one showing Two Rudimentary
Arms]
Of the free echinoderms, such as the starfish and the sea urchin, the
former has been found in the Cambrian rocks of Europe, but neither
have so far been discovered in the strata of this period in North
America. The stemmed and lower division of the echinoderms was
represented by a primitive type, the _cystoid_, so called from its
saclike form, A small globular or ovate "calyx" of calcareous plates,
with an aperture at the top for the mouth, inclosed the body of the
animal, and was attached to the sea bottom by a short flexible stalk
consisting of disks of carbonate of lime held together by a central
ligament.
=Arthropods.= These segmented animals with "jointed feet," as their
name suggests, may be divided in a general way into water breathers
and air breathers. The first-named and lower division comprises the
class of the _Crustacea_,--arthropods protected by a hard exterior
skeleton, or "crust,"--of which crabs, crayfish, and lobsters are
familiar examples. The higher division, that of the air breathers,
includes the following classes: spiders, scorpions, centipedes, and
insects.
=The trilobite.= The aquatic arthropods, the Crustacea, culminated
before the air breathers; and while none of the latter are found in
the Cambrian, the former were the dominant life of the time in
numbers, in size, and in the variety of their forms. The leading
crustacean type is the _trilobite_, which takes its name from the
three lobes into which its shell is divided longitudinally. There are
also three cross divisions,--the head shield, the tail shield, and
between the two the thorax, consisting of a number of distinct and
unconsolidated segments. The head shield carries a pair of large,
crescentic, compound eyes, like those of the insect. The eye varies
greatly in the number of its lenses, ranging from fourteen in some
species to fifteen thousand in others. Figure 268, C, is a restoration
of the trilobite, and shows the appendages, which are found preserved
only in the rarest cases.
[Illustration: Fig. 268. Trilobites
A, a Cambrian species; B, a Devonian species showing eyes;
C, restoration of an Ordovician species]
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