Visceral mass and shell conical; tentacles atrophied; head expanded; genital apertures contiguous; marine animals, with an aquatic pallial cavity containing secondary branchial laminae.
In the paraschists, though fossils are exceedingly rare, sedimentary structures such as bedding and the alternation of laminae of fine and coarse deposit may frequently be preserved.
A few other minerals may be noticed, and some have been worked to a small extent - graphite is abundant, particularly near Upernivik; cryolite is found almost exclusively at Ivigtut; copper has been observed at several places, but only in nodules and laminae of limited extent; and coal of poor quality is found in the districts about Disco Bay and Umanak Fjord.
In the Rhynchonellidae there are two short slender curved laminae, while in many genera and even families, such as the Productidae, Strophomenidae, Lingulidae, Discinidae, &c., there exists no calcified support for the labial appendages.
Then they develop .definite fibrils which differentiate into fibrous laminae forming a zone which shuts off the abscess from the healthy tissue and so prevents the further invasion and injurious effects of the microorganism.