Recent Synonym in the Paleontology of Cincinnati Group, 39 



NOTE ON A RECENT SYNONYM IN THE PAL.*:ON 

 TOLOGY OF THE CINCINNATI GROUP. 



By Prof. Jos. F. Jamfs. 

 • (Read June i, 1886.) 



Zai^d-^r/z/^? ;«^/;///('ra, Ulrich, vs. Stromatopor A SUBCYLINDRICA James. 



The first number of "Contributions to American Palaeon- 

 tology," May, 1886, by Mr. E. O. Ulrich, contains descriptions 

 and remarks upon twenty-six species of fossils from the Devonian 

 and Silurian formations of Indiana and Kentucky. These species 

 are distributed among the Bryozoa (sixteen species), Brachiopoda 

 (two species). Gasteropoda (four species), Anthozoa (two species), 

 Hydroida (?) (one species), and Foraminfera (one species). Only 

 one of these species is from the Lower Silurian, Cincinnati Group, 

 and as we are especially interested in this one, a few remarks may 

 be in order. 



The species is named Labccliia Diontifcra, and belongs to that 

 much-disputed class of fossils known as the Stromatoporoids. 

 Whether it belongs to the class under which Mr. Ulrich has placed 

 it (Hydroida?), or to another group is not a question for discus- 

 sion here. The point to which we wish to call attention is the 

 fact that the so-called new species is an evident synonym for 

 another species described and illustrated in the Journal of this 

 Society in April, 1884, by Mr. U. P. James. It was there named 

 Stromatopora subcylindrica, and it agrees so well in all its 

 essential characters with Mr. Ulrich 's species that one wonders 

 how the error of overlooking it could have been made, as Mr. 

 Ulrich must have been acquainted with the work done here more 

 than two years ago. 



In comparing the two descriptions the following points of re- 

 semblance are noted. Both are incrusting, in the one case clay, 

 simply, in the other generally " species of (^////^vr/vrs-. " Both are 

 cylindrical or compressed ; in both the crust is about one tenth of 

 an inch thick ; both have undulating surfaces which are covered 

 with scattered corical "elevations " or " monticules," the slopes 

 of which are marked with "lines" or "ridges." The interven- 

 ing spaces are in both cases covered by " circular or elongate 

 papillae," or "granular eminences." In both the internal 

 structure is irregularly porous or vesicular, and lastly the horizons 

 at which the two were found were approximately the same, the 

 one being above Morrow, Ohio, and the other Madison, Indiana. 

 Thus there are no differences between the two which would enable 

 any one to separate them, and the Lalux/iia niontifera falls to the 

 rank of a synonym of Stromatopora subcylindrica, James. 



