82 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



only the mold and cast of a single specimen before us. The 

 first impression which it gives is that of a badly flattened 

 column of plates of one of the Paleozoic barnacles with a long 

 series of overlapping plates as in Lepidocoleus. On closer study it 

 becomes evident, however, that the main part of the body is simply 

 segmented without overlapping plates, while on one side there is 

 attached to the segments a .series of overlapping scales, under an 

 angle different from that of the annular segments. These scales 

 overlap in a different direction from the plates of a Lepidocoleus, 

 that is, outward, and the surface of our fossil lacks entirely the 

 characteristic surface sculpture of the plates of the Lepidocoleidae. 

 On the other hand, the segmented surface exhibits a great number 

 of setae, directed backward, and the blunt end is formed by an 

 oval plate. We believe that this structure can be properly referred 

 to the chaetopod described by Doctor Clarke as Protonympha 1 from 

 the Portage group at Naples, N. Y., by assuming that our specimen 

 is resting on its side and therefore shows on the left (dorsal) side 

 the elytra or dorsal scales and along the median line the setae while 

 the right (ventral) side is smooth. The body was then probably 

 cylindrical instead of flat as in the type species of Protonympha. 

 The blunt extremity is apparently the head, the body being twisted 

 so that the ventral side of the head is shown. This view is sup- 

 ported by the disappearance of the elytra toward the head because 

 they are turned to the under (dorsal) side of the fossil. On both 

 sides of the head and the segments behind it are seen falcate 

 appendages suggesting the jaws and bristles of such rapacious 

 Polychaeta as Nereis. Whether the scales correspond to the elytra 

 of such polychaetous annelids as the subfamilies Hermionina and 

 Polynoina embrace, we are not prepared to say, especially for the 

 reason that they seem not to be alternating on the right and left 

 sides of consecutive segments as in the recent worms. On the other 

 hand the circular scars on the segments recall very strongly the 

 attachment places of the elytra as seen in the recent Polychaeta. 

 Likewise, the lateral setae are a distinct character, rinding its recent 

 duplication in the same annelids. The jaws of the head again sug- 

 gest relationship to other Polychaeta, notably the nereids. It is 

 therefore probable that this Paleozoic worm is not in close tax- 

 onomic relationship to any of the recent orders of the Polychaeta 

 but represents an early synthetic or aberrant, entirely extinct type. 



x John M.- Clarke. Some Devonic Worms. Rep't N. Y. State Pal. for 

 1902, p. 1234. 1903. 



