THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 1 39 



BRIEF NOTES ON MARINE ANNELIDS, ERRANTIA 

 AND TUBICOLA. 



Read before the Geological Section, Dec. 26th, i8go. 



BY COL. C. C. GRANT. 



Since ttie discovery of the " conodonts " (fossil teeth) by Prof. 

 Pander in the lower silurian rocks of Europe (pronounced by Owen 

 to be the spines or denticles of moUusks or annelids), considerable 

 attention has been directed to this minute class of organic remains. 

 Perhaps the largest and finest collection was obtained by Professor 

 George J. Hind, from the Clinton palaeozoic beds at Dundas. In 

 this neighborhood at a similar horizon the paired burrow of a lob- 

 worm and the trails of other annelids are often seen. It is no easy 

 matter to distinguish a crushed or flattened fucoid from the trail of 

 a worm in a muddy sediment, when the former was cord-like in 

 structure. But I think I am in possession of satisfactory proof that 

 many of the so-called trails are really algge. It is singular that with 

 a solitary exception no teeth have been found as yet here. True, 

 they are so minute they may easily escape^observation, but then they 

 have a horny or chitonous lustre which the practised eye must 

 quickly observe. 



Like the common earth worm or leech the marine annelid is 

 capable of considerable extension or contraction, the rings or seg- 

 ments of the body are joined together by an elastic skin. They 

 have red blood. Many are provided with eyes, and some species 

 (the errantia) have powerful jaws armed with incisive teeth. From 

 the soft nature of the body the latter alone are likely to be found 

 preserved in a fossilized state. I have frequently seen them darting 

 off apparently with the wriggling motion of the eel, not crawling 

 along the bottom ; indeed they seemed to be some inches above it. 

 Water in rippling over a shallow shore is rather deceptive, however. 

 A well-known European annelid, Eunice saugifiea, attains a length of 

 from two to two and a-half feet. According to the naturalist, De 

 Quatrefages, it possesses no less than 300 body rings, a brain, 3,000 

 nerve branches, 280 stomachs and twice as many hearts. While Nature 



