FREE INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE 



I I2Q 



TERTIARY FAUNA OF FLORIDA 



Natural Well, Duplin County, and on the Cape Fear River; Pliocene of the 

 Waccamaw beds, South Carolina, and of the Caloosahatchie and Shell Creek, 

 Florida. 



This very characteristic little shell has the hinge more robustly developed 

 than in most of the species, though its teeth, etc., are otherwise precisely simi- 

 lar. This may account for the fact that Conrad referred two of the closely 

 allied species to Abra while erecting a genus for this one. The outer surface 

 is sculptured mainly by rather prominent incremental lines, but occasionally 

 shows a fine shagreening or minutely pustular sculpture. This character is 

 not constant in most but is occasional or habitual in nearly all the American 

 species as well as some European ones. The living shell, which in my " Mol- 

 lusks of the Southeastern Coast of the United States" I too hastily referred 

 to this species, has with further study proved to be the Eucharis (=Aniso- 

 donta) elliptica of Recluz. The resemblances, however, suggest that the latter 

 genus may eventually find a place in the vicinity of Sportella. The form and 

 muscular scars, the tendency to pustulation of the surface, and to a less extent 

 the characters of the hinge point in this direction. Up to the present time, 

 though not intrinsically improbable, there is no conclusive evidence of the 

 survival of Sportella constricta in the recent fauna. 



Sportella protexta Conrad. 



PLATE 25, FIGURE 3. 

 Amphidesma protexta Conrad, Am. Journ. Sci., xli., p. 347, 1841 ; Trans. Am. Assoc. 



Geol., i., p. no, 1842; Fos. Med. Tert., p. 73, pi. 41, fig. 7, 1845. 



Hiatella lancea H. C. Lea, Trans. Am. Phil. Soc., 2d Ser., ix., p. 242, pi. 34, fig. 24, 1845. 

 Syndosmya protexta Conrad, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., vii., p. 29, 1854. 

 Saxicava fragilis Holmes, Post-Pi. Fos. S. Car., p. 57, pi. 8, fig. 18, 1859. 

 Abra protexta Conrad, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. for 1862, p. 574, 1863; Meek, S. I. 



Checkl. Mio. Fos. N. Am., p. 11, 1864. 

 Sportella lancea Ball, Trans. Wagn. Inst. Sci., iii., part iv., p. 920, pi. 25, fig. 3, 1898. 



Miocene of Petersburg, Virginia, of North Carolina at Wilmington, and 

 in Duplin County at Magnolia and the Natural Well ; Pliocene of the Cape 

 Fear River, North Carolina ; of Tilly's Lake, Waccamaw River, South Caro- 

 lina, and of the Caloosahatchie beds of Florida; Pleistocene of Simmons 

 Bluff, South Carolina ; living off Cape Lookout, North Carolina, in twenty- 

 two fathoms, sand, dredged by the United States Fish Commission. 



This species is notable for its solenoid form, more pronounced in the young, 

 its conspicuous nepionic stage visible on the beaks, and its sparse pustulation, 



