Senry Woodward — Dawn of Life on the Earth. 297 



Nor must we omit that besides a Cliilognathous Myriapod {Xylo- 

 bius sigillaria), Dr. Dawsoii's labours have brought to light two 

 air-breathing Snails, Pupa vetusta and Conulus prisciis. 



Among the fossils foreign to the Coal itself, yet found associated 

 with it in the Olay-ironstone nodules of the Coal-measures, have been 

 discovered numerous small King- Crabs-, a beautiful wing of a large 

 Locust, Gryllacris lithanthraca, and an entire Arachnide from the 

 Dudley Coal-field, Eoph-ynus Prestvieii, two Scorpions and a Spider 

 from the Coal of Silesia, the Proiolycosa anthracophila. 



The Forest Marble of Wiltshire has the honour of furnishing the 

 earliest-known short-tailed Crab (the Palceinachus longipes), whilst 

 the Coal presents us with the earliest-known Lobster (the Anthra- 

 palcBvion Grossartii). Another form of Nautiloid shell is also here 

 met with, belonging to the genus Goniatites. 



Beneath the Coal rests the Carboniferous Limestone, sometimes 

 with the Millstone Grit between. The Carboniferous Limestone is 

 for the most part a truly marine deposit, often rich in Corals and 

 huge Brachiopods, Proditctus giganteus, with large Gasteropods, 

 EuompJialus, MacroeJieihis, etc., and with several species of Trilo- 

 hites — another truly extinct order of Crustacea (unless, as I have 

 ventured to suggest elsewhere, the Trilohita are but a lower form 

 of Isopoda, less highly developed and less differentiated than those 

 of to-day). Abundant and beautiful forms of Crinoidea occur in 

 these rocks, often forming entire strata of vast thickness by the frag- 

 ments of their stems alone, as witness the Entrochal marble and the 

 Screw-stone of Derbyshire.^ The Encrinite marble is so extensive 

 as to be quarried for mantelpieces and other economic purposes. This 

 marble also yields a new type of Nautiloid shell (but unrolled and 

 straightened out), the Orthoceras, one of the earliest of the group. 



And here I may be permitted to observe that both at the outset 

 in the Palgeozoic rocks, and also in the Chalk, Gault, and Neocomian 

 strata, near the close of the epoch of the Tetrabranchiaie Cephalopoda 

 (or four-gilled division of this order of Mollusca), of which the 

 Nautilus alone survives, they appear and disappear, as it were, in 

 contortions. In fact, these chambered shells assume the most varied 

 curves, spirals, and discoidal twists conceivable, as if undergoing 

 torture, or practising fashions. 



Nor can I divest my mind of the idea that mimicry (as Dr. Darwin, 

 Mr. Wallace and many other Naturalists have pointed out) amongst 

 animals of to-day was practised at a very remote period, and by very 

 different forms of life. 



Thus in the Solenhofen Limestone I believe long-tails were at one 

 time set forth in the fashion-book of the period ; for we have a long- 

 tailed bird (the Archceopteryx), a long-tailed Pterodactyle (the 

 Bhamphorhynchus) , a long- tailed Crab, the King-Crab. Tails among 

 Reptiles have been mostly in vogue — the earlier Frogs even wore 

 tails, and their babies keep up the remembrance yearly, but drop 

 them as soon as they come ashore. 



^ The Woodocrinus, a beautiful form of stone-lily, only occurs at one particular 

 locality, in the Carboniferous Limestone near Eichmond, Yorkshire. 



