Abstract
ON account of their sabre- or blade-shaped form, the name Machaeridia is proposed for the group of Palæozoic fossils which comprises the genera Lepidocoleus, Turrilepas, Deltacoleus, and Plumulites. These genera1 are undoubtedly related to one another, but their systematic position has long been a matter of dispute. Although regarded by some authors as Mollusca (Polyplacophora), Cystidea, Annelida, or Trilobita, they. have usually been referred to the Cirripedia; and several writers have looked on them as the ancestors of the stalked barnacles of later times. This view, which is based largely on a comparison with the Chalk form Stramentum (Loricula), is shown by Withers to be untenable, since that genus is now known to be an aberrant type representing a specialised side-line of development from the scalpelliform barnacles, and further, none of the Palaeozoic genera can be proved to be Cirripedia, the earliest undoubted representative of that group being found in the Rhsetic beds.
British Museum (Natural History). Catalogue of the Machæridia (Turrilepas and its Allies) in the Department of Geology.
By T. H. Withers. Pp. xv + 99 + 8 plates. (London: British Museum (Natural History), 1926.) 7s. 6d.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
British Museum (Natural History) Catalogue of the Machæridia (Turrilepas and its Allies) in the Department of Geology . Nature 118, 512 (1926). https://doi.org/10.1038/118512a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/118512a0