LOWER CAMBRIAN, 61 
possibly owe its presence to the arms or tentacles of medusee. He found in 
the collection of the National Museum at Stockholm a block of rock from 
Lugnas which he thought showed that ‘‘ Medusites favosus, at least in this case, 
gave rise to Eophyton.” ‘Besides the ordinary form of Eophyton,” he says, 
“there is found another which can be said to be thread-like, and several such 
threads often run side by side on the surface of the strata for some distance. 
It is quite possible that this may be due to the tentacles of medusee. At any 
rate, I noticed at Kristianburg that when Cyanea capillata descends to the 
bottom it allows its tentacles, or part of them, to trail on the bottom.” Dr. 
Nathorst also calls attention to the great resemblance existing between Spiro- 
scolex spiralis and the tentacles of several medusze. His theory of this resem- 
blance, as here given, is very interesting and is worthy of careful consideration 
and experimentation with a view to proving or disproving its soundness. 
Sir William Dawson was convinced that Eophyton could not be a 
plant, but markings of the nature of Rabdichnites, which he defined as 
straight or slightly curved marks usually striated or grooved longitudinally, 
and either single or in pairs. He considered that the marks owed their 
origin to furrows produced by trailing pointed objects over the mud." 
Dr. Dames identified Kophyton from the Trias by comparing typical 
specimens from Lugnas with those found in the ‘ Bunter Sandstein.” He 
agreed with Dr. Nathorst’s view that Kophyton is a trail, and not a fossil 
Dr. Rauff considers that Eophyton may be of purely mechanical 
origin.” He studied a specimen from Lugnas by cutting thin sections and 
observing the arrangement of the sandstone. His work is very suggestive, 
and explains many of the so-called trails and alge I have met with in 
studying the evidences of life in the Lower Paleozoic rocks. I do not 
think, however, that the specimens illustrated by Dr. Linnarsson, or those 
in this memoir (Pls. XXXII-XXXVIII), are of mechanical origin. 
Count Saporta discusses three suppositions in regard to the nature of 
Eophyton: 
1. Tracks of animals, viz, trilobites. 
2. Trails of medusz, ete. 
3. Plant remains. 
1 Am. Jour. Sci., 3d series, Vol. V, 1873, p. 20. 
> Loc. cit., 1875, p. 245. 
8 Neues Jahrbuch fiir Min., Geol. und Pal., 1891, Vol. IT, pp. 100-101. 
