Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 May 2009
This species (under the generic name of Himantopterus)was first noticed by Mr J. W. Salter in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society for 1856 (vol. xii. p. 28, fig. 5); but only the penultimate segment and telson were then known.
In vol. xv. of the same Journal (1859), Mr, Salter described eight species of Eurypterus, from the Upper Ludlow Rocks and the Old Red Sandstone; but he did not refer to E. lanceolatus in that paper. Of these eight species of Eurypterus, E. pygmceus, from its smaller size, is the best preserved species. It occurs in the Downton Sandstone of Kington, in the Basement-beds of the Old Red Sandstone at the Ludlow Railway, and in the Upper Ludlow Rock of Ludford; and I have lately seen an entire specimen (in the cabinet of Mr. Jas. Powrie, F.G.S.), only one inch in length, from the Old Red Sandstone of Petterden in the Sidlaw Hills, Forfarshire.
page 107 note * Terminal joint, or tail-plate.
page 107 note † To be described and figured in a future Number.
page 108 note * See Report of the Meeting of the British Association at Glasgow for 1855, and Sir Murchison's, R. I. paper on the Geology of Lesmahagow, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xii. 1856.Google Scholar
page 108 note † Another nearly entire, but much distorted, example has been obligingly lent me by Mr. Bryce M. Wright, from which I have been enabled to make out the form of the post-oral plate and some other parts more distinctly than before; but I am especially indebted to Mr. Slimon for his drawings, which have been of the greatest assistance.
page 108 note ‡ In Hall's figure they overlap the body to the extent of the first thoracic segment; the thoracic segment being equal in depth to the first two thoracic joints which it covers.
page 109 note * A single antenna is seen in Mr. Wright's specimen; it is more robust than the antennule, and the number of joints appears to be eight, but they cannot be clearly made out. A specimen in Mr. Slimon's cabinet shows two of these simple palpi in sitû; but does not help us as to the number of the joints.
page 110 note * I shall have occasion to refer to this species again in a future paper; but I may state that more than one plate is now known to have been attached to the thorax of Slimonia.
page 111 note * 1859, vol. xv. p. 229.Google Scholar
page 111 note † Palæontology, New York, 1859, vol. iii. p. 397.Google Scholar