INVERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY. 505 



TEUTHIDiE. 

 Genus PHYLLOTLUTHIS, M. & H. 



Sy^on.— Phylloteuihis, Meek ami Hayden (1860), Proceed. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad., XII. 1?"..— Gabb (1861), 

 S\ no].. Moll. Cut. Form., 32.— Meek (1804), Smithsonian Check List N. Am. C'ret. 

 Fossils, 20. 



Ftym. — i t v/?.«i', a leaf; rev&ic, a cattle-fish. 

 Ti/jit: — PhylloteulMa suboruia, M. & II. 



Gladius flat, thin, subovate, being obtusely angular behind, widest poste- 

 riorly, narrowing forward, and apparently corneous in texture; midrib nar- 

 row ; alations only marked by fine, straight, parallel striae, which pass from 

 the midrib obliquely backward and outward to the lateral and posterior- 

 lateral margins. 



This genus seems to he related to the Liassic group Beloteuthis, Mini- 

 ster, but differs from the typical forms of the same in not having the lateral 

 alations suddenly contracted, or shouldered, as it were, in outline near the 

 middle, nor marked with a few furrows, ridges, or striae, radiating forward 

 from the posterior extremity ; also in having the striae of its alations perfectly 

 straight and parallel. At least one of tbe species, however, sometimes 

 referred by authors to Beloteuthis, seems hardly generically distinct from our 

 type — that is, Loligo BoUensis, Scrambler. It has also been referred to 

 Belopeltis by d'Orbigny, and Belemnosepia by Pictet, to neither one of which 

 it appears to me properly to belong. 



Unless the last-mentioned species can be correctly included in this 

 genus, it would seem to be, so far as known, a Cretaceous group ; the type- 

 species being from the Upper Cretaceous. If Schoubler's species, however, 

 is congeneric, that would make the genus both Cretaceous and Liassic. 



P li y 1 1 o t e ii t h ■ s subovata, M. & H. 



Plate 33, fig. 3. 



PhylloteutMs mbovaia, Meek and Hayden (1860), Proceed. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad., XII, 175. (For other 

 citations, see synonymy of the genus.) 



The specimen on which this species and the genus to wbich it belongs 

 were founded, consists only of an impression of the expanded part of the 

 gladius in a mass of rock. It was evidently thin, or leaf-like; the space 

 between the two halves of the rock, the separation of which exposed the 

 fossil, being very thin. None of its original substance remains, which fact 

 seems to indicate thai it was more probably corneous than calcareous, as 

 154 u 



