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DESCRIPTIONS OF SOME TERTIARY SHELLS FROM NEW ZEALAND. 



By Heney Suter. 



Sead 9th November, 1906. 



PLATE XVIII. 



A FEW years back a number of fossil shells were kindly given me for 

 description by Professor James Park, F.G.S., Director of the School of 

 Mines, Dunedin, and the following is the result of my investigations, 

 most kindly assisted by Dr. W. H. Dall, of Washington. 



Lapparia Parki, n.sp. PL XVIII, Figs. 1, 2. 



Shell fusiform, with large caricelloid protoconch, costate lower 

 whorls, and 5 oblique plaits on the pillar. Sculpture : one of the 

 specimens shows distinct marks of spiral striation on the last whorl of 

 the protoconch, but on the succeeding whorls hardly a trace of it is 

 visible. The axial sculpture consists of sharp, slightly flexuous ribs, 

 14 on the fifth whorl, extending over the whole height of the whorls ; 

 interstices with numerous, close, feebly marked incremental lines. 

 Spire conical, a little shorter than the aperture. Protoconch consisting 

 of 2J to 3 whorls with impressed suture, the apex lateral, raised, and 

 pointed ; the first two whorls convex, slightly higher than the last 

 whorl, which is also less rounded. Whorls slightly straightened 

 below the suture, thence flatly convex. Suture superficial, undulated 

 by the axial costation. Aperture long and narrow, margins subparallel. 

 Columella nearly straight, slightly concave at the base, with 5 sub- 

 equidistant oblique and slender plaits. Inner lip spreading as a very 

 thin callus over the pillar and on to part of the body. Height 23, 

 breadth 7-5 mm. (immature shell). 



Locality. — Lower Gorge of Pareora River, Canterbury, New Zealand 

 (Professor J. Park). 



Formation. — Labelled " Oamaru Series, Oligocene." However, 

 since I received the specimens Professor Park has published a paper 

 on the "Marine Tertiaries of Otago and Canterbury," in which he 

 estimates the Oamaru Series as belonging to the Miocene.^ 



Type in my collection. All the fossils under consideration I sent 

 to Dr. W. H. Dall for examination, and he expressed the opinion 

 that these New Zealand fossils recall the North American Eocene 

 more than the Oligocene. On this particular species Dr. Dall kindly 

 wrote to me : " I am much interested in your specimen, which, as you 

 say, recalls the Caricella type of nucleus strikingly. It is, however, 

 in some respects intermediate between the typical Caricella and the 

 shell named by Conrad Lapparia, which is closely allied to Caricella. 

 Both, without a doubt, belong to the group with a membranous 

 protoconch. I am glad to see it, since it shows the course of 



1 Trans. N. Zeal. Inst., voL xxxvii (1905), pp. 503, 550. 



