Every one familiar with the history of the Trilobites, is aware that a good deal of controversy has existed among naturalists, respecting the precise link in the grand chain of organized beings, these singular fossil animals, should occupy. Professor Brongniart, Dr. Dekay, Audoúin, and several other acute observers, have placed them in the vicinity of the Limuli, and other Entomostraca with numerous feet; while P. A. Latreille and others, presuming that these animals were destitute of locomotive organs, as no vestige of them has ever been discovered, fix their natural position in the neighbourhood of the Chitones; or rather that they constituted the original stock of the Articulata, being connected on the one hand with these latter Mollusca, and on the other with those first mentioned, and even with the Glomeris.[49] It was our original intention to have closed this Monograph with a short history of these theories—and of the notion advanced by Latreille and others, that the Trilobites have been annihilated by some ancient revolution of our planet. All these matters, we think, are now put to rest by the late discovery of some living Trilobites in the southern seas, near the Falkland Islands. In the cabinet of the Albany Institute, we have examined some of these recent animals, which have very nearly the size and general appearance of the Paradoxides Boltoni, as represented on our frontispiece; the species cannot, however, belong to that genus, as the buckler is furnished with eyes very similar to those of the Calymene Bufo; its organs of locomotion are short, numerous, and concealed under the shell—but I do not feel at liberty to notice the interesting animal more minutely. It will probably be described and figured shortly, in a perfectly full and satisfactory manner, by Dr. James Eights, the enterprising discoverer, together with several other new and remarkable genera and species belonging to the Entomostraca.

[49] See Cuvier's Animal Kingdom, vol. iii. pp. 135-6.

FINIS.

Index to the Species.

CALYMENEBlumenbachii,page[28]
Callicephala,[30]
Selenecephala,[31]
Platys,[32]
Microps,[34]
Anchiops,[35]
Diops,[37]
Macrophthalma,[39]
Bufo,[41]
Rana,[42]
ASAPHUSLaticostatus,[45]
Selenurus,[46]
Limulurus,[48]
Caudatus,[50]
Hausmanni,[52]
Pleuroptyx,[55]
Micrurus,[56]
Wetherilli,[57]
PARADOXIDESBoltoni,[60]
OGYGIASillimani,[63]
ISOTELUSGigas,[67]
Planus,[68]
Cyclops,[69]
Megalops,[70]
Stegops,[71]
CRYPTOLITHUSTessellatus,[73]
Bigsbii,[76]
DIPLEURADekayi,[79]
TRIMERUSDelphinocephalus,[82]
CERAURUSPleurexanthemus,[84]
TRIARTHRUSBeckii,[87]
NUTTAINIASparsa,[89]
BRONGNIATIAPlatycephala,[91]

JOSEPH BRANO,

No. 12, CASTLE STREET, PHILADELPHIA,

Teacher of the Art of Preparing Birds, Quadrupeds, Reptiles, &c. &c.

AND OF THE