HUXLEY, THOMAS HENRY.

Remarks upon Appendicularia and Doliolum of the Tunicata....(late of H.M.S. "Rattlesnake".

(London, Richard Taylor, 1851). 4to. No wrappers as extracted from "Philosophical Transactions" 1851 - Part II. Pp. 595-605 a. 5 lithographed plates.

First appearance of a major paper on the Tunicates, a group of underwater saclike filter feeders with incurrent and excurrent siphons that is classified within the phylum Chordata.

"In 1851 Huxley presented to the Royal Society two major papers on tunicates: "Observations on the Anatomy and Physiology of Salpa and Pyrosoma" and "Remarks upon Appendicularia and Doliolum of the Tunicata" (the paper offered)....The zoological position of Appendicularia had been most unsettled owing to its possessionof a tail. Huxley demonstrated that this tail is a retained larval feature lost by most adult ascidians. The significance of this urochordal structure in relation to the vertebrate pedigree did not become evident until later."(DSB VI, p. 590).

Order-nr.: 44052