Charles Emerson Beecher

“ On the two anterior joints these spines are much shorter, appearing only as nodes. The ventral side is without spines, but is furnished with broad articulating faces. These characters indicate a great freedom of motion in the parts of the abdomen and account for the many positions in which this member is found.
Telson short and broad, flat and quadrangular on the ventral side; triangular and carinated on the dorsal side, and produced into a long, slender spine, having a length about equal to twice that of the posterior segment of the abdomen. ”

“ This genus differs in the form and ornamentation of the car- apace from Ceratiocaris Its relations with Elymocaris are quite apparent in the outline of the valves and probably equal number of segements in the abdomen. The succcessive appearance of three distinct species having a similarity of ornamentations from widely separated horizons indicates a permanence of of character which is of generic importance. The three species in question also illustrate in a very satis- satisfactory manner the sucessive appearance of higher types in the same genus. ”

“ Carapace bivalve, dorsal line nearly equaling the length of the valves. Valves elongate, longitudinally sub-quadrangular or sledge-shaped, extending posteriorly slightly beyond the hinge-line. Margins thickened, regularly curving from the anterior extremity of the hinge, making a broad sweep along the lower margin, rapidly curving around the lower posterior end, and extending to the hinge. ”

“ The shales carrying these remains are highly charged with other fossils, among which are fragments of fishes, Beyrichia, Leperditia, Phacops, Homalonotus, Orthoceras, Nautilus, Loxonema, Pleurotomaria, Bellerophon, Platyostoma, numerous species and genera of lamellibranchiata, with a few species of brachiopods and bryozoans.
Associated with numerous specimens of E. punctata are frequently found mandibles or jaws of the form represented in Figs. ”

“ XIX, p. 36,) in the more numerous nodes and tubercles of the carapace, the curvature and direction of the ridge along the thoracic portion, and in its more elongated abdominal segments. The same characters serve to distinguish it from E. pustulosa, Whitfield, (loc. cit.,) with the addition of a marked difference in the surface ornamentation, which in that species is distinctly pustulose. It is readily distinguished from E. socialis, in its larger size, less conspicuous and differently located nodes, and in the more simple character of the ornamentation. ”

“ A. S. Packard recognizes the importance of Nebalia and its fossil allies and their relations to the decapods, and proposes the order Phyllocarida for their reception. (Zoölogy American Science Series, p. 703.)
1880.—Professor R. P. Whitfield in 1880 (Am. Jour. Sci., vol. xix) described three allied species from the Devonian of Ohio and established the genus Echinocaris, which is to include also, the species Ceratiocaris (Aristozoe) punctatus, Hall. ”