A Guide to the Fossil Invertebrate Animals in the Department of Geology and Palaeontology in the British Museum (Natural History), Cromwell Road, London, SW

Abstract

THE second edition of Dr. F. A. Bather's guide will be even more useful than the first. It serves the student, who may never enter the British Museum galleries, as an introduction to invertebrate palæontology, since the structure and habits of each class of animals are described, before the fossil remains are dealt with. The introductions to Trilobita and Cephalopoda may be specially mentioned. The interesting discovery of the dimorphism and double mode of reproduction of many foraminifera is stated on p. 24, with particular reference to the Nummulites. Dibuno-phyllum is assigned “stratigraphical importance” on p. 54. A new drawing of the under surface of Eurypterus Fischeri appears on p. 87. We note that the class Arachnida, including the Mero-stomata, intervenes between the trilobites and the Crustacea. The Crustacea receive more attention than is usually given to them; the interest of the beginner in palæontology often falls off when he has mastered the structure of the trilobites. Crabs and lobsters then appear to him altogether trivial; Dr. Bather, however (p. 100), attracts us happily to the primitive Dromiacea, and thence to the evolution of the crabs that are now familiar to us.

A Guide to the Fossil Invertebrate Animals in the Department of Geology and Palaeontology in the British Museum (Natural History), Cromwell Road, London, S.W.

Second edition. Pp. x + 185 + 7 plates. (London: Printed by Order of the Trustees, 1911.) Price 1s.