On the '^CirrtpeJe^^ Lepidocoleus. 653 



LXXVn. — The "■ Cirripede''' Lepi<locolcus in the Upper 

 Orduvician Rocks of Scotland. JJy Thomas li. Withers, 

 F.G.S. 



[Plate X. figs. 1-5.] 



(Published by permission of the Trustees of the British Aruseum.) 



The acquisition by the Geological Department of the British 

 Museum of tlie well-known collection of Mrs. Ilobt. Gray, of 

 Edinburjjli, has brought to notice certain small fossils, which 

 were included with the Annelida, since they are the speci- 

 mens which Dr. Cowper Reed (1908, p. 295, pi. xii. 

 Hgs. 9, 10) described and figured as an Annelidan Tube (?), 

 allied to Cornulites and Conchicolites. 



Examination of these specimens shows, without any doubt, 

 that they represent a species of the genus Lepidocoleus, 

 a form which is generally accepted as belonging to the 

 Cirri pedia. 



The genus Lepidocoleus is known by several species 

 (Withers, 1915, pp. 121-2) from the Ordovician, Silurian, 

 and Devonian rocks of Europe and North America, but so 

 far it has not been recorded, as such, from the Palieozoic 

 rocks of this country. We now have, however, the present 

 specimens from the Ordovician of Scotland, and the genus 

 is represented in the English Silurian by species occurring 

 in the Wenlock beds of Dudley and Malvern. 



Genus Lepidocoleus, Faber. 



The shell of this genus is composed of two columns of 

 plates, square to oblong in shape, and these combine to form 

 a blade-shaped shell, which opens along the sharp " free " 

 margin, and along the broad "fixed" margin there is a 

 narrow median groove formed between the incurved and 

 rouiuled margins of the plates ; at the apex the shell 

 tapers to a point, and although it also tapers slightly 

 towards the base, it is there somewhat broadly rounded ; 

 the plates overlap each other from behind forwards, 

 sometimes to as much as half their length. In some 

 species the plates of each column alternate with each 

 other to some extent, but in others there is a little or no 

 alternation. The umbo of each plate is apical and is situated 

 on the outer edge of the median groove at the "fixed" 

 margin, and there each plate is rather abruptly deflected 

 inwards, but in the plates of the left-hand series this 

 deflected portion is slightly wider, and bent outwards 



