CHAPTER XVII 



RECENT BRACHIOPODA 



INTRODUCTION SHELL BODY DIGESTIVE SYSTEM BODY CAVITY 



CIRCULATORY SYSTEM EXCRETORY ORGANS MUSCLES 



NERVOUS SYSTEM REPRODUCTIVE SYSTEM EMBRYOLOGY 



HABITS DISTRIBUTION CLASSIFICATION. 



Introduction 



The group Brachiopoda owes its chief interest to the immense 

 variety and great antiquity of its fossil forms. Whereas at the 

 present time the number of extant species amounts to but about 

 120, Davidson in his admirable monograph^ on the British 

 Fossil Brachiopoda has enumerated close upon 1000 fossil species, 

 found within the limits of the United Kingdom alone. 



The amount of interest that the group in question has 

 excited amongst naturalists is evinced by the invaluable Biblio- 

 graphy of Brachiopoda, prepared by the same author and his 

 friend W. -H. Dalton.- This monument of patient research con- 

 tains over 160 quarto pages, each with the titles of from 

 eighteen to twenty separate papers dealing with Brachiopods, 

 published between the years 1606 and 1885. 



Probably the first reference to Brachiopods in zoological 

 literature is to be found in a work entitled Aqtiatilnim ei 

 Tcrrestriuiii alic[Uot Animalium, published in the year 1606 by 

 Prince Fabio Colonna at Eome. This work contains the first 

 description of a Brachiopod under the name of Concha diphya. 

 In a second edition, which is not so rare in our libraries as the 



^ "A Monograph of the British Fossil Biachiopoda," Palaeontographical Society, 

 London, vols. i.-v. 1851-84. 

 - Ibid. vol. vi. 1886. 



