The Appendages, Anatomy, and Relationships of Trilobites

by Percy E. Raymond

Specimen No. 58589.

Illustrated: Walcott, Smithson. Misc. Coll., vol. 57, 1912, pl. 45, fig. 2;—Zittel-Eastman Text-book of Paleontology, vol. 1, 1913, fig. 1377;—Smithson. Misc. Coll., vol. 67, 1918, pl. 18, fig. 1; pl. 20, fig. 1.

This is one of the most important of the specimens, as it shows the coxopodites of three thoracic limbs and the well preserved endopodites of six thoracic and five pairs of pygidial appendages.

The appendages are all shifted to the left till the articular socket of the coxopodite is. about 8 mm. outside of its proper position. The endopodites extend a corresponding amount beyond the edge of the dorsal test and are there so flattened that they are revealed as a mere impression. The coxopodites, which are beneath the test, seem to have been somewhat protected by it, and while hopelessly crushed, are not flattened, but rather conformed to the ridges and grooves of the thorax.

Fig. 2. Neolenus serratus (Rominger). A sketch of the coxopodites and endopodites of two thoracic segments. Note notch for the reception of the lower end of the appendifer. × 3.

The coxopodite of the appendage of the last thoracic segment is best preserved. It is rectangular, about one third as wide as long, with a slight notch in the posterior margin near the outer end. The inner end is obliquely truncated and shows about ten sharp spines which do not appear to be articulated to the segment, but rather to be direct outgrowths from it. There are similar spines along the posterior margin, but only two or three of what was probably once a continuous series are now preserved. On the opposite margin of the coxopodite from the slight depression mentioned above, there is a slight convexity in the outline, which is better shown and explained by the coxopodite just in front of this. That basal segment has the same form as the one just described, but as its posterior margin is for the greater part of its length pushed under the one behind it, the spines are not shown. On the posterior margin, two-thirds of the length from the proximal end, there is a shallow notch, and corresponding to it, a bulge on the anterior side. From analogy with Ceraurus and Calymene it becomes plain that the notch and bulge represent the position of the socket where the coxopodite articulated with the appendifer. Since these structures have not been shown in previous illustrations, a drawing giving my interpretation of them is here inserted ([fig. 2]). It is evident from the position of the notch that the row of spines was on the dorsal (inner) side of the coxopodite and that the truncation was obliquely downward and outward.

The endopodite of the last thoracic appendage is well preserved and may be described as typical of such a leg in this part. The basipodite is as wide as the coxopodite, and it and the three succeeding segments, ischiopodite, meropodite, and carpopodite, are all parallel-sided, not expanded at the joints, and decrease regularly in width. The propodite and dactylopodite are also parallel-sided, but more slender than the inner segments, and on the end of the dactylopodite there are four little spines, three of them—one large and two small—articulated at the distal end, and the fourth projecting from the posterior outer angle. Each segment has one or more spines on the outer articular end, and the ischiopodite has several directed obliquely outward on the posterior margin. All of the four proximal segments show a low ridge parallel to and near the anterior margin, and several endopodites of the pygidium have a similar ridge and a row of spines along the posterior margin of some of the segments. These features indicate that the segments in question were not cylindrical in life, but compressed. From the almost universal location of the spines on the posterior side of the limbs as preserved, it seems probable that in the natural position the segments were held in a plane at a high angle with the horizontal, the ridge was dorsal and anterior and the row of spines ventral and posterior. Because the spines on the endobases are dorsal it does not follow that those on the endopodites were, for the position of the coxopodite in a crushed specimen does not indicate the position of the endopodite of even the same appendage.

The endopodites of the pygidium are similar to the one just described, except that some of them have spines on the posterior margin of the segments, and a few on the right side have extremely fine, faintly visible spines on the anterior side. The specimen shows fragments of a few exopodites, but nothing worth describing. In the middle of the right pleural lobe there is a small organ which Walcott has interpreted as a small epipodite. It is oval in form, broken at the end toward the axial lobe, and has exceedingly minute short setæ on the posterior margin. From analogy with other specimens, it appears to me to be the outer end of an exopodite.