Victoria, R: Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, 1

Excerpt from Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, 1897, Vol. 9: Edited Under the Authority of the Council

The fossils are very variable in Size and shape, but speaking generally they are cylindrical objects ranging up to about 3 mm. Or 4 mm. In diameter and to about 5 mm. In length. The two terminal plane faces of the cylinder are generally perpendicular to its long axis, and are pierced by a number of fine pores, which are apparent without the aid of a lens. The lateral wall of the cylinder is formed by closely applied threadlike cords which branch and anastomose, leaving narrow elongated pores between them, the long axis of the pores coinciding in direction with that of the cylinder. Usually the diameter of the cylinder slightly increases somewhat suddenly at each end. In many cases the joints are branched, three branches sometimes meeting at one point. The proportion of the length of the cylinder to its, diameter varies greatly in different specimens. Some are very elongate, while others are ¿at discs, all grades between the two extremes being found.

A transverse section shows a cylindrical canal occupying the organic centre and a series of canals, which are somewhat reniform in transverse section, arranged round this in several concentric circles. The canals are connected with those on the same radius by very fine tubules, connection of one canal with another beside it occurring rarely in the sections I have examined. The whole structure has therefore very much the appearance of an Haversian system of a mammalian bone, but the central canal is smaller and the fine tubules corresponding to the canaliculi are far fewer and coarser than in bone.

In longitudinal section the canals are seen as parallel tubes, and the connecting tubules, which are far apart, run, as a rule, somewhat obliquely from one canal to another. In one instance a tabula crossing a large canal was clearly seen.

A longitudinal section through the point where branching takes place shows that the central canal itself divides into two, a division running up the axial line of each branch. The fine tubules occasionally pierce the outer wall of the cylinder and their openings form the slitlike pores before mentioned. Some of the specimens of which I have made sections are infiltrated with iron pyrites, which has filled even the fine tubules, and the structure is thus more clearly shown than in those specimens where no infiltration has taken place.

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