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 INTRODUCTION

HISTORY OF INVESTIGATIONS UPON THE EURYPTERIDS OF NEW YORK AND ADJOINING TERRITORY

The Siluric rocks of New York are, of all countries of the world, the richest in eurypterids. The first example ever described was obtained here. The specimen was found in Westmoreland, Oneida co., and was regarded by Dr S. L. Mitchill [1818] as a fossil fish of the genus Silurus, an error obviously induced by the peculiar catfishlike aspect of the carapace. In 1825, James E. DeKay,  the distinguished zoologist of the Natural History Survey, recognized the arthropod nature of this fossil. He erected for it the genus, and termed the species , considering it as a crustacean of the order Branchiopoda,  , among others, as a recent form probably of near relation to it and suggesting that Eurypterus may be a connecting link between the trilobites and recent Branchiopoda.

In 1835, Dr Richard Harlan described the, the predominant species in the Siluric waterlime at Buffalo, and next in abundance to.

These descriptions preceded those of European species by a considerable interval; hence they were frequently copied into early 13