In the great majority of Nassellaria not only is the monaxonial fundamental form expressed, but also the dipleuric or bilateral, so that the symmetrical halves of the body may be easily determined; the right and left halves exhibit the same symmetry as in the vertebrates, so that we may distinguish an anterior ventral and a posterior dorsal face of the body. The whole form is in this case determined by three dimensive axes, perpendicular to one another, two of which are heteropolar, the third is homœopolar. The apical pole of the vertical main axis (principal or longitudinal axis) is different from the basal pole. The ventral pole of the horizontal sagittal axis (or dorso-ventral axis) is different from the dorsal pole. The right pole of the horizontal transverse axis (lateral or frontal axis) is equal to the left pole. Therefore the sagittal or median plane of the body (in which the principal and the sagittal axis are crossed) divides it into symmetrical equal halves and is perpendicular to the frontal axis.
Three different original elements of structure are recognisable in the majority of Nassellaria, viz., (1) a vertical simple ring, the primary or sagittal ring, placed vertically in the sagittal plane and enclosing the median plane of the central capsule; (2) a basal tripod, composed of three diverging radial rods, which are united on the basal pole of the central capsule and are either expanded horizontally or descend; (3) an ovate or subspherical, simple lattice-shell, the cephalis or capitulum, which surrounds the central capsule and exhibits a peculiar structure on its basal pole.
These three important original elements of structure—the sagittal ring, the basal tripod, and the latticed cephalis—are so united in the majority of Nassellaria that the cephalis rests upon the tripod and includes the sagittal ring wholly or partially. The simplest realisation of this typical union is afforded by the Archiperida and Tripospyrida, and these may be derived from the simpler important Stephanid Cortina (Pl. 83, fig. 9; Pl. 92, fig. 21; Pl. 97, fig. 1). In this and in all other tripodal Nassellaria, the three basal rods or the "cortinar feet" are constantly so arranged that an odd or posterior rod, the "caudal foot" (c) is opposed to the two anterior paired rods, the "pectoral feet" (one right, p″, and one left, p′). The caudal foot lies in the sagittal plane, and is prolonged upwards into the dorsal rod of the sagittal ring (b), and over this in a free ascending spine, the "apical horn" (a). The curved ventral rod of the ring (r) is united above with the base of the apical horn, below with the common centre of the tripod or the "cortinar centrum." The characteristic position of the central capsule in this skeleton of Cortina is such that its basal pole (with the porochora) rests upon the centre of the tripod, whilst its sagittal perimeter is separated from the surrounding ring by the calymma; the numerous pseudopodia arising from its base diverge downwards and are supported and protected by the three basal feet of the tripod (Pl. 97, fig. 1). Compare also Pls. 51, 53, 84, 95, 98.
The typical skeleton of Cortina, a tripodal ring, becomes more developed in the Semantid Cortiniscus, in which the basal parts of the three diverging feet are united
