1916.] NAT! EtAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 455 



NEW GENERA. AND SPECIES OF GASTROPODA FROM THE UPPER 



CRETACEOUS. 1 



BY BRUCE WADE. 



The extent of the Gastropod fauna discovered in the Upper 

 Cretaceous of Tennessee and the remarkable state of preservation 

 of the hitherto unknown generic types warrant the present pre- 

 liminary account of some of the more interesting. 



The locality is on Coon Creek, in the northeastern part of McNairy 

 County, in west-central Tennessee, and a somewhat detailed account 

 has been published recently in the Johns Hopkins Circular. The 

 horizon is in the lower part of the Ripley formation and hence some- 

 what older than the classic Owl Creek fauna of the Ripley of Tippah 

 County, Mississippi. 2 



Family CANCELLARIID^E. 

 Genus MATAXA gen. now 



Etymology: (j.dra^a } cocoon. 



Type: Mataxa elegans sp. nov. 



Shell of medium size and thickness; spire obtuse, its altitude less 

 than half the entire length of the shell ; protoconch large and smoothly 

 polished, the earliest volutions for the most part submerged and 

 increasing rapidly in size, thrice-coiled in the type-species; conch 

 solid and slightly glazed, paucispiral, external sculpture subdued, 

 axial sculpture subdued or absent; aperture broadly lenticular and 

 produced anteriorly in a comparatively long recurved canal; outer 

 lip expanded and dentate internally; parietal wall widely and heavily 

 glazed; columella marked by two strong oblique plaits situated far 

 in and behind two or more marginal plaits. 



This genus is proposed for a species represented at Coon Creek 

 by perfectly preserved elegant shells and a species Narona eximia, 



1 Published by permission of Dr. A. II. Purdue, State Geologist of Tennessee. 



2 The writer wishes to acknowledge his indebtedness to Prof. E. \Y. Berry and 

 Dr. J. A. Gardner, of the Johns Hopkins University, under whose guidance this 

 work was done; to Dr. W. H. Dall and Dr. T. \\ . Stanton, of the U. S. Geological 

 Survey, and especially to Dr. L. \Y. Stephenson, of the latter organization, who 

 has been engaged for several years in the areal, stratigraphic, and faunal studies 

 of the Cretaceous of the Embayment region. 



