Eurypterid respiration

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Abstract
The function of the eurypterid gill is discussed in comparison with possible analogues among Recent arthropod respiratory organs, and with regard to suggestions that it may have been an air-breathing organ. The pseudotrachea model is preferred, since size and morphology in particular, preclude its use as a gill. True gills may have been present, remaining undiscovered. The development of a secondary air-breathing organ, in addition to gills, appears to have been less favourable for terrestrialization than the direct conversion of book-gill to book-lung, as in the scorpion line.