75 



PECTEN papyraceus. 

 TAB. CCCLIV. 



Spec. Char. Depressed, obliquely oval, with 

 large unequal, rectangular ears, striated, 

 very thin. 



jS^umerous elevated strias, that are decussated, upon 

 the larger ear especially, by lines of growth, cover this 

 very thin flat shell : there is no sinus between the ears 

 and the rest of the shell, so that it is not easy to say 

 where they begin : the length exceeds the width about 

 one-fourth : the two valves are very nearly equal. 



Preserved in the Woodwardian cabinet at Cambridge 

 by the late Prof. Hailstone, who obtained it in the schale 

 of North Ouram Coal-pits, near Bradford. It is a 

 curious circumstance that a marine shell should be 

 found so near the remains of land vegetables common in 

 the Coal formation, a formation in which shells of any 

 kind are very rare, and where hitherto only fresh-water 

 ones had been found. Casts of Pecten are very abun- 

 dant in the Schale filled with decomposing Iron Pyrites ; 

 no other shells accompany them except rarely an indis- 

 tinct species of Anomia. The specimens are decaying 

 very rapidly. 



