ANNELIDA (RINGED WORMS). 



79 



Fig. 36. — Supposed coiled tubes of 

 Polychseta, from the Devonian of 

 Canada, a, Spirorhis omphalodes ; 

 b and c, Spirorbis arkoyiensis. The 

 smaller drawings give the natural 

 size of the objects (after Nicholson). 



bodies called Nereito^ms, from a supposed resemblance to 

 Nereis, one of the Errantia; these fossils, however, if poly- 

 chaetes at all, belonged to the Tubicola. The mass of 

 tubes of Seijmla advcna 

 from Caldy Island is of 

 Upper Devonian age. Tubes 

 referred to Sciynla also 

 come from the Carboni- 

 ferous limestones of Ireland. 

 Spirorhis (Fig. 36) is fre- 

 quently associated with 

 plant-remains from the Coal 

 Measures ; but some of the 

 fossils to which this name 

 is given are probably mol- 

 lusc shells. The jaws and conodonts found in all these 

 Palaeozoic rocks are too small for exhibition. 



The Jurassic rocks contain many different shapes of 

 tubes, referred to Serpula when adherent to other objects, to 

 Ditrypa when free, and to Galeolaria when in dense clusters. 

 iN'oteworthy examples of the first-mentioned are the tubes on 

 a piece of jet from the Lias of Whitby, and those on the 

 surface of a coral, Thamnastrca, from the Coral Kag. Similar 

 tubes are common in Cretaceous rocks ; the Serpulite Lime- 

 stone of Brunswick is formed of them. More interesting are 

 the tubes formed of fish-scales found in the English Chalk, 

 originally described by Mantell as a fish — Muraena Icwesiensis, 

 and referred by Agassiz to anotlier fish — Dercetis clongcdus. 

 One worm seems to have burrowed into sponges, and is found 

 as an irregular spiral coil inside hollow flints. In the Wall- 

 case the most interesting Mesozoic fossils are those from the 

 Kimmeridgian of Solenhofen. Here is a Eunicites with bristles 

 and jaws, and numerous coiled castings known as Lumhricaria 

 (Fig. 37), and supposed to be those of worms, though once 

 regarded by Agassiz as derived from the intestines of fish. 

 Pyrgopolon is a characteristically shaped tube, common at 

 the top of the Cretaceous. 



In the British Tertiary series, Scrpida heptagona, from the 

 Barton Beds, should be noticed, for the opercula which closed 

 the tubes are preserved, and thus the genus can be more 

 accurately determined. The coiled tubes known as Vermetus 

 hognoriensis, of which two fine slabs are exhibited in the 

 Wall-case, are thought by some to have been formed by a 

 mollusc. A large block of Serpula tennis comes from the 



Gallery 

 VIII. 



Table-case 

 26. 



Table-ease 

 26. 



Wall-case 

 15a. 



Table-case 

 26. 



Wall-case 

 15 A. 



Table-case 

 26. 



