164 PARTULA. 



(Mayer, Some Species of Partula from Tahiti; a study in 

 variation, in Mem. Mus. Comp. Zool. xxvi, 1902) . 



Fossil Partulida. 



No fossil Partulae are known. The ancestors of this family 

 lie buried under the South Pacific. Several Eocene and 

 Oligocene species have been described as Partulse, as follows : 



Partula americana Heilprin, Trans. Wagner Free Institute 

 of Science i, p. 115, pi. 16, f. 60 (1887) ^Hyperaulax 

 americanus (Heilprin), Man. Conch. XIV, p. 103. Oligocene, 

 Tampa Silex bed, Florida. 



Partula vicentina Oppenheim, Denkschriften der Kaiser- 

 lichen Akademie der Wissenschaften vol. 57, 1890, p. 125, 

 pi. 2, f. 10-10&. Zeitschrift Deutschen Geol. Gesellschaft, 

 vol. 47, 1895, p. 104. Eocene. Red tuffs of Capitello, Sta. 

 Catterina above Altissimo, etc. 



Partula dautzenbergi Cossmann, Annales de la Societe 

 Royale Zoologique et Malacologique de Belgique, xli, 1906, 

 p. 280, pi. 8, f. 267&is-l. Sparnacien stage of the Eocene,, 

 at Grauves, Paris Basin. 



The reference of these forms to Partula is purely fanciful. 

 The American species is referable to a genus of Bulimulidse, 

 Hyperaulax. Well-preserved specimens have not the 'char- 

 acteristic apical sculpture of all known Partulidae. The- 

 European Eocene forms offer no character whatever separ- 

 ating them from "Buliminus" (Enidae). Their reference 

 to Partula rose from the fallacious method of trying to exactly 

 match the fossil shell with some recent species, ignoring the 

 obvious fact that details of contour are constantly changing 

 in the evolution of any group, and offer no features diagnostic 

 of genera in Bulimini, Bulimuli or Partulse. The Eocene 

 forms in question have not been shown to have the embryonic 

 sculpture of Partula. 



Classification of Partulida. 



This family contains the single genus Partula. It is quite 

 possible that when the forms of Micronesia, Melanesia etc. 



