742 SCIENTIFIC RECORD FOR 1885. 



Packard, A. S. — The Syncarida, a Group of Carboniferous Crustacea. 

 Amer. JVat, vol. xix, pp. 700-703. July 1, 1885. Philadelphia. 



Presents the conclusions of a paper read at the last meeting of the 

 National Academy of Sciences. The author considers the Syncarida as 

 a suborder, standing near or at the base of the Thoracostraca, not far 

 from the Siomapoda and Schizopoda., and with appendages closely homo- 

 logous with those of these two groups. In their lack of a carapace and 

 in the well formed dorsal arch of the seven thoracic segments, we are 

 obliged to consider them as an annectant group, pointing to the exist- 

 ence of some extinct group which may have still more closely connected 

 the sessile-eyed and stalk-eyed Crustacea. 



[Packard, A. S.] — On the Gampsonychidae, an Undescribed Family of 

 Fossil Schizopod Crustacea. Amer. Ifat., vol. xix, pp. 790-793. Au- 

 gust, 1885. Philadelphia. 



Abstract of a paper read at the April meeting of the National Acad- 

 emy of Sciences. The study of about a dozen specimens of Palwocaris 

 typus Meek and Worthen, has led the author to compare the genus with 

 Gampsonyx^ and the result has led to the formation of a family or higher 

 group for the two genera, which should properly staiid at the base of 

 the Schizopoda., while also serving to bridge over the chasm existing 

 beween the thoracostracous suborders Syncarida and Schizopoda. This 

 group may be called Gampsonychidm. The principal character which 

 separates this group from all other schizopods is the entire absence of a 

 carapace. When we comi)are the Gampsonychidce with the Syncaridce 

 (Acanthotelson) we see that both groups have the same number of body 

 segments and that both lack a carapace ; and thus while the Gampsony- 

 cJiidw are the ancestors of living schizopods, the group as a whole proba- 

 bly descended from Acanthotelson, which is thus a truly synthetic form, 

 standing in an ancestral relation to all the Thoracostraca, while it also 

 suggests that the sessile-eyed and stalk-eyed Crustacea may have had 

 a common parentage. 



Packard, A. S. — On the Anthracoridje, a Family of Carboniferous 

 Macrurous Decapod Crustacea, allied to the Eryonidte. Amer. Nat., 

 vol. XIX, pp. 880, 881. September, 1885. Philadelphia. 



Abstract of an article read before the National Academy of Sciences 

 in April, 1885. The author has had opportunity of studying specimens 

 of Anthrapalwmon gracilis Meek and Worthen. The newly observed 

 characters are the carapace with its rostrum, showing that the Ameri- 

 can species in these respects closely resembles the European ones fig- 

 ured by Salter, the founder of the genus. Moreover, specimens show 

 the entire thoracic legs, while the antennae of both pairs were almost 

 entirely shown. The fact that the first pair of thoracic feet were scarcely 

 larger than the succeeding pairs shows that Anthrapalcemon cannot be 

 placed in the Eryonidce, but should form the type of a distinct group 

 of family rank, none of the existing Tliacn^m- having such small anterior 



