P. buffaloensis Clarke. Zittel-Eastman, Textbook of Pal. v. 1, pt 2, 1900, p. 678, fig. 1425
P. buffaloensis Seeman. Beitr. z. Pal. u. Geol. Oesterr.-Ung. u. d. Orients. 1906. 19:51 et seq.}}
The quarrying operations in the cement rocks near Buffalo have brought to light numerous fragments of large Pterygoti which, as they were found, were described as new species by the curators of the Buffalo Museum. Seven species were thus named. Later years have furnished more complete specimens and these show that only two species of Pterygotus can at best be recognized at this locality.[1] One of these is identical with Hall's P. cobbi; the other a form of gigantic proportions, is here discussed.
The history of this species, briefly stated, is as follows:
In 1875 Grote and Pitt described and figured the masticatory edge of a gigantic coxa [pl. 79, fig. 1], which they termed P. cummingsi, stating that "P. macrocephalus (sic) and P. osborni are evidently very much smaller species, measuring scarcely as many inches as P. cummingsi does feet, and are undoubtedly distinct."
Then Pohlman in 1881 described and figured the swimming leg here reproduced on plate 78, figure 2, as representing his new species P. buffaloensis, referring also a fixed ramus of a large chela to the same species. The latter is identical in form with the same part of a much smaller individual figured by Hall on his plate 80A, figure 6 as "undetermined crustacean." The following year Pohlman published a further paper on fossils from the waterlime group of Buffalo in which a telson of a young individual slightly more slender than the average telson is made the type of a species, P. acuticaudatus, and a detached ultimate postabdominal segment that was mistaken for a telson is used as basis of a species named P. quadraticaudatus. In regard to
- ↑ One of the "Pterygoti" described from Buffalo (P. globicaudatus) proves to be an Eurypterus, and a synonym of Hall's E. pustulosus.
