DESCRIPTION OF THE MOLLUSCA. 



Cephalopoda. 



Family BELOSEPIID^. 

 Belosepia sepioidea (Blainville). 



PLATE 2,, figs, i, 2. 

 Beloptera sepioidea. 



Blainville: Man. Malacologie, 1825, p. 622, and 1827 Atlas, pi. u., fig. 7. 



Sepia longispina and S. longirostris. 



Deshayes : Desc. Coq. Foss. Paris 1835, Vol. 2, p. 757, pi. 101, figs. 4-6 and 10-12. 



Belosepia sepioidea. 



F. E. Edwards: Mon. Pal. Soc. (The Eocene Mollusca of England) 1849, pp. 29-31, pi. i, figs, i ; 

 Cossmann : Ann. Soc. R. Mai. Belgique, 1891, Vol. 26, pp. 6-7; R. B. Newton and G. F. Harris; 

 Proc. Mai. Soc. London, 1894, Vol. I, pp. 120, 121, pi. 10., figs. 1-3 (for good figures of the shield). 



REMARKS. The fossil under consideration represents a single rostrum or 

 beak of a Belosepia, which is of interest as indicating for the first time the 

 occurrence of this genus in the African Eocene. An examination of the 

 specimen shows that from the dorsal aspect it has steeply divergent sides 

 surmounted by a fragment of the acuminate posterior end of what was once 

 an extensive shield-like structure, bearing a pitted or vermiculate surface 

 which, if perfectly preserved, would have anteriorly presented a series of 

 equidistant hemispherical coarse granulations. The rostrum itself is solid 

 and of the narrow, elongate type such as those figured by Deshayes from 

 the Paris Basin Eocene under the names of Sepia longispina and 

 5. longirostris ; sharp longitudinal ridges and grooves enter into its 

 structure which probably have been accentuated by erosion. The ventral 

 view of the fossil discloses the remains of a stout semi-circular plate 

 furnished with radiating channels and marginal serrations, which is coalescent 

 with the thickened base of the rostrum. Immediately beyond the anterior 

 margin of this plate is a nacreously-lined conical cavity forming the posterior 

 end of the incomplete shield, bearing fine, elevated, concentric lines which 

 represent the septal divisions of an alveolus as exhibited in Belemnites, and 



