41 



FURTHER REMARKS ON THE LxiRGE FOSSIL 



MARINE WORM OF THE MOUNTAIN LIMESTONE 



DISTRICT OF WENSLEYDALE, YORKSHIRE. 



i 



BY EDWARD WOOD, ESQ. 



Every addition to our stock of knowledge, however small, adds to the 

 chance of solving the great problems of geology, and, looking at the subject 

 in such a light, I trust your readers will not think their time trespassed 

 upon, in the endeavour to verify the existence in long past ages — even of a 

 worm. 



In continuation of the subject noticed in your last number, I think that the 

 following hints and queries may help to a conclusion. — That the fossil in question 

 is not a marking has been clearly demonstrated; it must therefore be placed, 

 as an organic being, among the Aimelidce; but to what order the specimen is 

 referrible, whether it bears any analogy to now existing species, or whether, 

 like so many fossils, it forms an order of itself, constituting a link between 

 the orders at present laid down, is not so clear. 



Of the Annelidoe, the various species of the order Dorsihraiichiata, seem most 

 nearly allied to the fossil — those of Eunice and Nereis bearing the greatest 

 resemblance. The Eunice gir/aiitea, of the tropical seas, attaining a length of 

 from three to four feet, but an examination of the rings of its body shew a 

 marked variation. The fossil has articulations jointed like the stalk of a fern — 

 the Eunice exhibits an even surface throughout its entire length: in the jointings, 

 the Nereis nuncia and the fossil approximate more closely; but all the living 

 species of this order have characteristics which cannot be found in the fossil 

 species; they have, generally, a pair of setse (hair-like appendages) to each 

 joint — a sort of swimming apparatus. The rings which form the head change, 

 though not markedly, from those that form the body; the head is, in fact, 

 distinctly developed: in neither of these instances do the living and the fossil 

 annelide agree, and they are differences of no small importance, because they 

 seem to point to a totally different habitat for the two beings. The living 

 one inhabits the shores of the sea, and the clear water about the coral rocks, 

 crawling about ^^in the anfractuosities of the madrepores on the rocks, and on 

 the sand," and in mud; the last, however, bury themselves in holes, and form 

 tubes out of the ooze, and other substances, while some exude calcareous 

 matter, which produces a sort of tubular shell. ^^These, of course, have not 

 much freedom of motion, but the quick-mo'sang species are Very lively, and 

 swim well, and they creep about in a serpentine manner, fi'om right to left, on 

 the surface of bodies at the edge of the water." Some of these actions and 

 faculties may be predicated of the fossil annelide, but not all of them — it has 

 no swimming apparatus; it could not therefore inhabit deep water, being a red- 

 blooded worm. If the fossil be the animal itself, it could not have belonged to 

 any species of that class which construct tubes, or bury themselves in the mud; the 

 tubes would have been found in the first case, or the burrowing holes in the other. 



VOL. I. G 



