The whole subject of these peculiar Stromatoporoid forms extending from the Upper Cambrian to the Laurentian, deserves a full and careful investigation, for which I am endeavouring to collect material.
E. Receptaculites and Archæocyathus.
In "The Dawn of Life" (1875), reference was made to the singular and complicated organisms of the Upper Cambrian and Ordovician systems known as Receptaculites, which at that time was generally regarded as foraminiferal, and is still placed by Zittel, in his great work on Palæontology, among forms doubtfully referable to that group. It has also been referred to Sponges, though on very uncertain grounds. It has not, however, so far as I am informed, been traced any farther back than the Upper Cambrian (Calciferous), and no structural links are known to connect it with either Eozoon or Archæozoon. For this reason it was omitted in the text; but I think it well to mention it here, and to direct attention to it as possibly one of the complex Protozoa which may be traced far back toward the beginnings of life.[57]
[57] Billings, "Palæozoic Times."
Another primitive and generalized genus mentioned in the text is Archæocyathus of Billings, whose headquarters seem to be in the Lower Cambrian, and which may probably be traced farther back.
Mr. Billings described the genus in his "Report on Canadian Fossils" (1861-64), taking A. profundus, from the Lower Cambrian of L'Anse à Loup, on the Labrador coast, in the first instance, as the type.
A few years later, my attention was attracted to this species by specimens presented to me by Mr. Carpenter, a missionary on the Labrador coast, and which Mr. Billings kindly permitted me to compare with his specimens in the Museum of the Geological Survey, collected by the late Mr. Richardson, at L'Anse à Loup, in Labrador, in what were then called Lower Potsdam rocks. Slices of the specimens were made for the microscope, when it appeared that, though they had the general aspect of turbinate corals, like Petraia, etc., they were quite dissimilar in structure, more especially in their porous outer and inner walls and septa (see [Fig. 5, p. 35]). Yet they could scarcely be referred to the group of porous corals known in much later formations and in the modern seas. Nor could they be referred with much probability to Sponges, as they were composed of solid calcareous plates, which, as was evident from their textures, could not have been originally spicular. One seemed thus shut up to the conclusion that their nearest alliance was with Foraminifera, and if so, they were very large and complex forms of that group, consisting of perforated chambers arranged around a central cavity. I accordingly mentioned them in this connection in 1875, not as closely related to Eozoon, but as apparently showing the existence of very complex foraminiferal forms in the Lower Cambrian.
The specimens thus noticed were altogether calcareous, and were of the species named A. profundus by Mr. Billings. He had, however, referred to the same genus silicified specimens from a later formation, the Calciferous (Upper Cambrian) at Mingan, under the name A. Minganensis, which were subsequently found to be associated with spicules resembling those of lithistid sponges, and which proved to be very different from the Lower Cambrian form, and are now referred to a different genus. The subject had thus become involved in some confusion, and was left in this state by Mr. Billings on his death. I therefore asked my friend, Dr. Hinde, of London, to re-examine my specimens, and at the same time those of the Geological Survey were placed in his hands by Mr. Whiteaves. Hinde also obtained specimens from Lower Cambrian rocks in Sardinia, where they seem to be abundant, and from Spain. He states the results of his examinations very fully in a paper in the Journal of the Geological Society of London.[58] He retains the original name for the older and calcareous form from L'Anse à Loup, separating from it, however, another form, A. Atlanticus of Billings's, which is destitute of distinct radiating septa and acervuline, like the lower part of A. profundus. This he names Spirocyathus. The Mingan species he places with Sponges under the generic name, Archæoscyphia. In this Walcott substantially agrees with Hinde in his "Memoir on the Lower Cambrian Fauna." Both seem to refer Archæocyathus to corals, though admitting its very exceptional and anomalous structure. I think, however, we may still be allowed to entertain some doubts as to the reference to corals, more especially as the skeleton does not seem to have consisted of aragonite, but of ordinary calcite, like that of the Foraminifera. It is in any case a primitive form which seems to be dying out in the Lower Cambrian, and we may hope that it may be traced into the pre-Cambrian, and may form a link connecting the Palæozoic with the Eozoic faunas. In my description of it in "The Dawn of Life" in 1875, I used the following terms:—"To understand Archæocyathus, let us imagine an inverted cone of carbonate of lime from an inch or two to a foot in length, with its point planted in the mud in the bottom of the sea, while its open cup extends upward into the clear water. The lower part buried in the bottom is composed of an irregular network of thick calcareous plates, enclosing chambers communicating with one another. Above this, where the cup expands, its walls are made up of inner and outer plates, perforated with numerous round pores in vertical rows, and connected with each other by vertical partitions also perforated, so as to establish a free communication of the enclosed radiating chambers with each other, as well as with the water within and without. Such a structure might no doubt serve as a skeleton for a coral of somewhat peculiar internal structure, but it might just as well accommodate a protozoan with chambers for its sarcode, and pores for emission of pseudopods, both outwardly and by means of the interior cup, which in that case would represent a funnel like that of Carpenteria, or one of the tubes of Eozoon."
[58] Vol. xlv., 1889, pp. 125 et seq.