6U PALEONTOLOGY OF NEW JERSEY. 
Family CRASSATELLID AS. 
.Genus CRASSATELLA Lamarck. 
CRASSATELLA MELINA. 
Plate vii, figs. 11-13. 
Crassatella melina Conrad; Foss. Shells of the Tert. Form, N. A., p. 23, Pl. 1x, fig. 2; 
Medial Tert. Form., p. 22, Pl. x11, fig. 2; Meek, Smith. Check List, p. 7. 
Mr. Conrad describes this shell originally from Cumberland County, 
N. J., as follows: “Shell subovate, convex-depressed; umbones with a few 
regular rather wide sulci; umbonal slope nearly rectilinear, angular; dorsal 
margin very slightly concave; extremity obliquely truncated; anterior mar- 
gin regularly rounded.” In his observations he says it differs from C. undu- 
lata in being proportionally much shorter, and more widely truncated at 
the extremity, while the dorsal margin is less concave; and from the C. 
Marylandica in “being thinner and more compressed.” 
The shells, as I find them, are broadly subovate, much the widest ante- 
riorly, with the apex of the valves at about two-fifths of the entire length 
from the anterior end. The posterior cardinal margin slopes rapidly, and 
with but little concavity, from the beak to the posterior end which is usually 
about half as high as the shell from the beak to the basal margin opposite. 
The body of the shell is rather convex, especially in old thickened speci- 
mens. ‘The umbonal ridge is somewhat angular and the posterior umbonal 
slope rather abrupt. Mr. Conrad states that it is thinner than C. Marylandiica. 
If by this is understood the thickness or weight of the shell, some of the 
specimens before me would not bear out the observation, as they are greatly 
thickened, and in comparison to the size of the shell would appear to be 
heavier than any individuals of that species I have noticed. Or if he 
referred to the general convexity of the valves, many of them are very 
rotund; although the majority are perhaps rather depressed convex. The 
hinge of the shell is very strong, and usually quite wide, but the teeth are 
comparatively thin and slender, while the ligamental pit is broad and well 
defined. The muscular imprints are large and deeply marked. A peculiar 
feature noticeable among the shells is a tendency of the surface to exfoliate 
