34 THE BRACHIOPODA. 



32.'— Waldheimia Meriani, Oppel. 



1856, Teeebratula Merloni, OppcL, Juraformation, page 424, 

 No. 214. 



1872. ., (W) Meriani, E. JDeslongschamps., Bracli. 



Terr. Jurass. plate Ixiv., figs. 1, 2, and 

 4 (3 and 5 varieties ?). 



1877. Waldheimia Meriani, Davidson, Proc. Dorset Club, plate 

 iii., fig. 9. 



This species differs from Wald. carinata chiefly by its beak, 

 "wbicli is so peculiarly curled over ; also by its greater depth.. 

 The specimens from the Cheltenham district seem to bo much 

 more constant in shape, and easily separable from Wald. carinata, 

 while specimens from this district vary somewhat, and run rather 

 more or less into that species. A point which helps to distin- 

 guish this species from Wald. carinata is the peculiar beak ridges, 

 which are particularly well brought out in E. Deslongschamps' 

 Brach., Tab. 64, fig. 2c. 



Localities. — It occurs in the Humphriesianum and Parkinsoni 

 zones, but is rather rare, at Bradford Abbas, Oborne, &c., 

 Dorset ; also Cheltenham (Gloucestershire), and in Normandy, 

 and in the departments of Deux Sevres, Tonne, and Saone-et- 

 Loire ; also from Swabia near Gamelshausen and Bopfingen. 



There also occur in the Parkinsoni zone near Sherborne a 

 large number of very small Waldheimia, which must evidently 

 be a small race of Wald. Meriani. They are extremely abundant, 

 being all huddled together, but only in one particular band. 

 The largest I have obtained measured : — Length, 5 ; breadth, 4 ; 

 depth, 3 lines, and the ordinary size is : — Length, 3 ; breadth, 

 3 ; depth, 2 lines. 



At Broadwindsor, too, in a band of brown clay on the top of 

 the quarry {i.e., on the top of a bed containing Stephanoceras 

 zigzag and Sphaeroceras dimorphum) come other peculiar little 

 shells, slightly bigger than the preceding, very like Wald. Meriani, 

 but with a deeper sinus in the dorsal valve. 



