THE 



aEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 



No. LXXXV.— JULY, 1871. 



os,ia-i3^.A.Xj .^.laTioXiiEss. 



I. — On the Structure of Trilobites. 



By Henry Woodward, F.G.S., F.Z.S., 

 of the British Museum. 



(PLATE VIII.) 



TEILOBITES appear to have been among the very earliest 

 recognized fossils, not only in this country, but on the Con- 

 tinent, their name having been given them by Walch, in his "Natural 

 History of Petrifactions," published at Nuremberg a hundred years 

 ago. 



Looking at the long list of distinguished naturalists, who, since 

 that date, have devoted more or less attention to these early repre- 

 sentatives of the Articulata, it may at first sight appear surprising 

 that we should have any doubt to-day as to their exact position in 

 the Crustacean class, but such is nevertheless the fact. 



To M. J. V. Audouin belongs the honour of having been the first 

 to suggest a definite place for the Trilobita. In his " Eecherches sur 

 les rapports entre les Trilobites et les animaux articules" (Paris, 

 1821), he compares them with the Isopoda, but believes they were 

 destitute of feet, yet furnished with appendages for breathing 

 organs. 



Wahlenberg, Brongniart, Schlotheim, Dalman, De Kay, Pander, 

 Green, and many others have contributed to a systematic knowledge 

 of the Trilobita, but to Quenstedt, Burmeister, and Emmerich we 

 are especially indebted for the most important views in regard to the 

 structure and organization of this group. 



In Dr. Burmeister's work ^ (edited from the German by Professors 

 Thomas Bell and Edward Forbes, and published by the Eay Society, 

 1846), the author concludes that " there is good proof that the feet 

 of the Trilobites must have been soft membranous organs, for the 

 absence of the slightest remains of these in the numerous specimens 

 observed, is of itself sufiicient evidence of the fact, and it can indeed 

 scarcely be supposed that hard horny extremities should be affixed 

 to a soft membranous abdominal surface; since they would not 



1 Published in Berlin in 1843. 



TOL. TUI.— NO. LXXXV. 19 



