98 FOSSIL MEDUSiE. 



Dr. Kner's description of this species is essentially as follows: 



Iu a fragment of a flint nodule, such as exist in great numbers in the chalk of 

 Niszniow (in Galicia, Stanislaw chalk). The piece of flint shows on one fractured 

 surface (a) the dorsal and upon the other (b) the oral side of the medusa. The many- 

 lobed and notched margin of the disk refers this genus to the acraspedote acalephs, 

 particularly for the reason that in the angles of the indentation, roundish, point-like 

 bodies can be recognized here and there under the disk, which are distinguished by a 

 different coloring from the rest of the margin, which resembles a dried orange peel, 

 as well as by their opacity. The number of these conjectural marginal bodies or 

 ocelli, however, can not be determined precisely; I was able to recognize only a few 

 of them in the entire circumference. Then, too, the unequal thickness of the flint and 

 its shaly fracture hinder the medusae from shining through. 



The finer structure of the margin shows under the lobes as a fine-celled or meshed 

 one, and the radii lying between, which proceed from the indentations, may have led 

 into a ring canal. This structure can hardly be made apparent by drawing. 



On the oral side some very indistinct arms glimmer through the mass, which I 

 believe to have surrounded the mouth to the number of four. Their outline and 

 length can not be given, since they are much contorted and deeply buried in the flint. 



So little information concerning the arms, tentacles, and sexual organs is vouch- 

 safed by the specimen that I was the more rejoiced at the sight of the muscular 

 bands which, as in many living medusae, are distributed concentrically in a parallel 

 position on the ventral side. Since from the drawing the size, form, and number of 

 the marginal lobes, as well as the coloration still retained, which resembles that of 

 many living medusa 1 , are shown, a further description would be unnecessary; all the 

 more as no finer details can be added. Moreover, I refrain from the attempt to 

 determine its genus, since too many essential organs are lacking on the oral side. 

 Still, it will probably find place in the family of the Pelagidse, and may, therefore, for 

 the time being, be designated Medusites cretaceus, in order to express at least the 

 formation to which it belongs. 



This species has been noticed by Drs. Brandt, Haeckel, and Ammon. 

 Dr. Brandt suggests that it ought to be assigned to the family Pelagidse, 

 and it is so referred by Dr. Ammon. 



The original figure of this species by Kner shows so little of what he 

 describes that I have not thought it worth reproducing. 



Dr. Zittel mentions other impressions from the Cretaceous flints, in his 

 text-book. 1 "Fine imprints of medusa?, but not yet accurately examined, 

 in flint nodules of the Upper Cretaceous, are found as Pleistocene drift 

 near Hamburg, and in Galicia indistinct impressions in flint of the Creta- 

 ceous of that region have been described by Kner." Dr. Ammon describes 

 the disk-like bodies under the name of Medusites hitUobatus. 



' Handb. der Pal., Vol. I; Paleozool., p. 306. 



