Comparing these six principal cases, in respect of the relation of the primary sagittal ring to the cephalis of the Spyroidea, we may suppose that they represent together a continuous phylogenetical series of which the first (A) is the original, and the last (F) the latest case; and that the true cause of the various changes is a successive separation of the ring, which becomes more and more free and independent from the lattice-plate of the cephalis. Since the intimate study of the structure of the cephalis in many Spyroidea is very difficult, it requires further accurate observations (from all six sides of the shell). There are also some other more difficult complications of its structure, which cannot be solved without exact study and extended comparison.
Of peculiar importance for the differentiation of the numerous genera of the Spyroidea are the basal feet or the descending and diverging apophyses, which are developed from the base of their cephalis. In general they exhibit the same typical shape which we find in the Plectellaria as well as in the Cyrtoidea, and which we regard therefore as an important common character of the majority of Nassellaria. We may therefore distinguish here also the three primary, and the other ones as secondary feet. The three primary feet, or the "cortinar feet," are the same that we found in the Plagonida and Plectanida, in Cortina and Cortiniscus among the Stephoidea, and in the majority of Cyrtoidea. They also reappear in the same characteristic disposition and connection with the basal plate of the cephalis, in the majority of Spyroidea. The odd caudal foot (c) is the lower prolongation of the dorsal rod of the sagittal ring, which is prolonged upwards into the apical horn. The two paired pectoral feet, however (p′, p′′), are the descending prolongations of the coracal rods (e) which separate the jugular pores (i) from the cardinal pores (k) of the cortinar plate (compare Pl. 95, figs. 2-6).
The three cortinar feet are nearly equally developed in the majority of Spyroidea (compare Pls. 84, 89). But often the odd caudal foot exhibits a different shape from that of the two paired pectoral feet, and in many genera of the group it becomes more or less rudimentary. It has quite disappeared in the subfamily Dipospyrida (Pl. 85); here the two pectoral feet only are developed (often excessively), and are usually opposite in the frontal plane. Such dipodal forms, very common in the Spyroidea, are never found in the Cyrtoidea.
The secondary feet, which we contrast with the three primary feet as later productions, exhibit great variations in number and development. Very frequently three interradial secondary feet become developed, alternating with the three primary cortinar or perradial feet, and opposed to them in pairs (Pl. 95, figs. 7, 8). In these hexapodal Spyroidea (or Hexaspyrida) an odd anterior or sternal foot (z) is opposite to the odd caudal foot, and two paired posterior or tergal feet (t′, t′′) to the two pectoral feet. When the sternal foot becomes rudimentary or lost, pentapodal forms arise (Pentaspyrida, Pl. 95, figs. 9-11), and when the two odd feet (caudal and sternal) disappear, tetrapodal forms arise with two pairs of feet (Therospyrida, Pl. 89, figs. 5, 6). The latter differ from
