47 



ON SOME RECENT GASTROPODA REFERRED TO THE FAMILY 

 TURRITELLID^l AND THEIR SUPPOSED RELATIONSHIP TO 

 THE MURCHISONIID^l. 



By Miss J. Donald. 



Read \1th January, 1900. 



PLATE V. 



The object of this paper is to draw special attention to some recent 

 Gastropoda which bear considerable resemblance to certain fossil 

 forms referred to the family Mnrchisoniidie. In several of my papers 

 on the Palaeozoic Gastropoda 1 have alluded to them, but it has been 

 suggested that if they were brought to the notice of this Society 

 it might lead to an effort being made to obtain the animals as well 

 as the shells, and thus a complete study might be achieved which 

 would teach us their true affinities. 



In January, 1881, Mr. Marrat first pointed out to me in the 

 Liverpool Museum an elongated shell having a deep sinus in the outer 

 lip, that had been collected, by Captain Cawne- Warren in Bass Strait. 

 This he had named in manuscript Murchisonia fissurata. The 

 Rev. 11. Boog Watson described this same species under the name of 

 Turrit ell a accisa, 1 and afterwards figured and more fully described it, 

 and some allied species, in the "Yoyage of H.M.S. ' Challenger.'"* 

 from a paragraph in Catalogue iv of the Museum Godeffroy, 

 Hamburg, p. xx, as far back as 1869, it appears that there was 

 a shell in tbat collection with a deep sinus, that had been dredged 

 by Captain Schultze in Bass Strait, and referred to the genus 

 Murchisonia, but it was imperfect, and the actual specimen is not 

 now known, though there are many examples having a deep sinus 

 in the collection from the same locality. Unfortunately the animals 

 which formed these shells were either not obtained, or else not 

 preserved, so that in considering their affinities we can at present 

 be guided only by the characteristics of the test. 



Although these shells bear a great general resemblance to both 

 Murchisonia and Turritella, they have in reality features which 

 distinguish them from the types of each of these genera. The genus 

 Murchisonia, as is well known, was first created by D'Archiac and 

 Be Verneuil in 184 1, 3 and is especially characterized by having 

 a deep narrow slit in the outer lip, the filling up of which during 



1 Joiirn. Linn. Soc, Zoology, vol. xv (1881), p. 220. 



2 Rep. on Gasteropoda, Zoology, vol. xv (ISStij, p. 406. 

 :i Bull. Soc. geol. Fiance, torn, xii, p. 154. 



VOL. IV.— AUGUST, 1900. 4 



