Charles Doolittle Walcott

“ The long curved spines (s, s, s) , are a very curious feature of the appendage and the most marked character of the genus and species. They are articulated to the posterior margin of the joints, as the latter rest flattened out in the slate or shale, and there is no evidence but that they formed a single series, as shown in the specimen and in the drawing, fig. 2. Each spine is constricted a little near its base, forming a rounded end or point of articulation ”

“ As far as known to us the Eurypterida has not been represented hitherto on the American continent below the Medina sandstone of New York, and no described species is known below this horizon elsewhere. ”

“ That they may represent in a greatly modified degree the spines shown in fig. 2 is not improbable. Eurypterus punctatus (Salter) Woodward, as restored in Woodward's Monograph of the Fossil Merostomata, p. 157, has a pair of long curved spines on four of the joints of the endognathary palpus, but they are represented as projecting forward, which does not appear to have been the case in the Utica slate species. ”