Wlarvels of the Universe 1119 
the Red or Gravesend Shrimp come much 
nearer to the form of the Lobster, the “ head”’ 
being furnished with the long, toothed sword 
that stands out from between the eyes. The 
value of that embellishment, as an element of 
personal beauty, can be estimated by placing 
a Brown Shrimp and a Red Shrimp side by 
side. The Brown Shrimp by comparison ap- 
pears to be deficient, to have lost his most 
prominent feature by having the front of his 
head cut off. The so-called “head”’ of the 
Shrimp is head and trunk combined, and 
bears the beautiful breathing machinery under 
the sides of the shell, whilst the long, thick 
hinder-part corresponds with the thin, flat 
“tail” that the crab tucks under his body. 
The complicated mouth-parts of the Shrimp 
are well worth examination; also the two 
pairs of antenne and the stalked eyes. The 
Brown Shrimp when alive is grey, dotted with 
brown, and when it sinks down upon the fine 
sands it chooses for its living-ground, it can 
only be seen by very sharp eyes. The moment 
it touches the sand the swimming feet and the 
broad scale at the base of each outer antenna 
throw up the sand around it, and this settling 
completely hides its outline. 
But this is only the common Shrimp—the 
Shrimp that is sold wholesale by the hundred- 
weight and retailed by the pint—and, therefore, 
too common to have interest for some people. 
Let us look at a fewof the lesscommon species _The forenart of the fossil skeleton of Archegosaurus, found 
/ ; in the Permian rocks at Saarbriicken. In the hinder-part of 
that are known only to the crab and shrimp the skull will be seen the aperture of the middle eye formerly 
specialists, otherwise carcinologists. possessed by newts and lizards. 
Here is one called Nematocarcinus (see page 1122), whose body conforms pretty much to 
the Prawn type, though its “‘ rostral spine’? between the eyes has not the length it attains in the 
Prawn. It has long, lash-like antenne three or four times the length of the body, and most of 
the walking legs are drawn out to an enormous extent. The hinge connecting the third and 
fourth joints of these limbs is peculiar, adapted to support the muscular strain consequent upon 
the great length of the joints. 
As this Shrimp is only obtained from great depths in the ocean the purpose of these long limbs is 
not known. 
More remarkable is the burrowing Shrimp named Thaumastocheles, which the trawl of the 
Challenger brought up from a depth of four hundred and fifty fathoms in West Indian waters. It 
is, like many of these abyssal Shrimps, a sightless creature, with possible vestiges of eye-stalks and 
sockets, but no eyes ; indicating that once upon a time it had eyes, but taking to deep water where 
there is no light to see with, the eyes were given up as a useless encumbrance. The most striking 
point in its appearance is the disparity in size between the right and left “ hands ”"—the pincers of 
the first pair of legs. They are both slender and elongated, and their inner edges armed with spine- 
A FOSSIL NEWT. 
