ulrich-bassler] revision of paleozoic bryozoa 259 



on the lower classes of invertebrates, among them Professor Huxley, 

 who " suggested they might be Protozoans," H. B. Brady, who 

 concluded that they cannot belong to the Foraminifera, and Mr. 

 Hincks, who, with clear insight, " suggested that they were possibly 

 allied to the recent Aitea." Nicholson and Etheridge were at first 

 inclined to consider them as peculiar Foraminifera, but seem to 

 have abandoned this view when Brady failed to see any such 

 affinities in them. Other possible affinities suggested by them are 

 with Hydrozoa, of which some of the stoloniferous Sertularians pre- 

 sent certain points of resemblance. Their conclusion, after briefly 

 weighing the possibilities is to " leave the question as to the sys- 

 tematic position of Ascodictyon . . . undecided." 



In the same year Dollfus described Tcrebripora capillaris,^ a new 

 bryozoan from the Devonian of France and evidently a representative 

 of the Ctenostomata. 



In 1879^ Ulrich proposed a new genus, Rhopalonaria, for another 

 type of these obscure organisms. The genus was placed in the 

 bryozoan family Crisiidcc, and the only species then known, well 

 described and illustrated. Being at that time quite unacquainted 

 with the Ctenostomatous Bryozoa, the true position of the fossil was 

 not recognized. 



In 1881^ G. R. Vine published descriptions of two Silurian species 

 of Ascodictyon, one of which was named Ascodictyon stellatum var. 

 siluriense, and the other doubtfully referred to A. radians Nicholson 

 and Etheridge, Jr. 



In a subsequent paper, published February, 1882,* Vine gives 

 fuller details and figures of the Silurian species, and proposes two 

 new names, Ascodictyon radiciformis for most of the forms pre- 

 viously referred by him to A. radians, and Ascodictyon Uliforme, 

 new species. 



In 1884 this author published a third paper on Ascodictyon'" in 

 which, as he says in a subsequent publication, he " did his best to 

 grapple with the systematic position of these fossils." Following 

 a review of the literature, he " ventured on a new departure on my 

 [his] own account." This is embodied in his remarks on p. 87 



^ Bull. Soc. Lin. Normandie (3), i, 1877. 



'Jour. Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist., 11, p. 26. 



3 " Silurian Uniserial Stomatoporse and Ascodictya," Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc. 

 London, xxxvn, pp. 613-619. 



* " Notes on the Polyzoa of the Wenlock Shales, etc.," Quart. Jour. Geol. 

 Soc. London, xxxviii, pp. 44-68. 



^ " Notes on Species of Ascodictyon and Rhopalonaria from the Wenlock 

 Shales," Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 5, xiv, pp. 77-89. 



