172 CRETACEOUS GASTROPODA 
Pictet offered some able remarks on the Prramprziip# in his Mat. p. 1. Pal. 
Suisse, 3me. ser., p. 214, and still more Deshayes in his recent edition of the Paris 
fossils, Vol. II, p. 527. Both are disposed to retain the family as it had been 
delineated by Gray in his Guide of 1857, p. 57. Forbes and Hanley say very properly 
of this family “rather as appertaining to past ages than the present epoch.” (Hist. 
Brit. Moll. Vol. III, p. 217.) Deshayes (loc. cit. Vol. II, p. 529) remarks also that 
the extensive genus Nerinea ought to form a distinct family from the PrraumDELLipa, 
with which we cannot agree for a moment. The shellsof the largest number of 
Nerinee are not only totally alike to those of Pyramidella and Obeliscus, but it 
will be and is indeed, almost impossible to separate exteriorly some Nerinee from 
Obeliscus. 
The last Monograph of Pyranidella by L. Reeve (Conch. Icon., pt. 250 and 251, 
1865) contains the descriptions of 45 species, but some of them belong to Syrnola, 
Monoptygma, and others. Perhaps there are scarcely more than 30 which may 
be retained as Obeliscus and Pyramidella. 
The tertiary species scarcely amount to 20, of which more than half are eocene. 
Deshayes described lately eight; Morris indicates three from the English eocene, and 
a few are noted from America. Scarcely a single species of the group of shells, 
known as Nerinea, has been reported from tertiary beds. 
Before we enter upon the cretaceous fauna, it will be probably useful to give 
first a short review of the genera which belong to the family Pyrrammpnzziipsz, and 
we begin, thus, first, with living forms.* 
1. Pyranidella, Lamarck, 1796.—Shell turreted, conical or ovate; whorls 
transversally ribbed ; columella usually solid, with three oblique plaits, the posterior 
of which is the largest ; outer lip generally thickened externally, smooth internally ; 
aperture anteriorly effuse and obsoletely notched. 
There have been up to the present only eight or nine species described—all from 
the eastern seas,—but several new species have been discovered since by A. Adams. 
2. Obeliscus, Humphrey, 1797.—Shell turreted, elongated; whorls smooth and 
polished; columella usually hollowed out, with two or more oblique plaits; outer lip 
internally often striated, and with remaining internal varices at some distances; the 
margin sharpened or somewhat expanded; aperture in front distinctly produced into 
a short canal and often notched at its termination. The living species of Obeliscus, 
which amount to 20 or 21 only, arealso chiefly inhabitants of the eastern seas, 
although a few are known from the West Indies. 
* T have published some provisional notes on the genus Nerinea in the Sitzungsb. d. Akademie, Wien, 
Vol. LIT, 1865 (Revision d. Gastropoden, etc., p. 24), and I have since been anxiously looking for a collection of 
fossil Gastropoda, which was ordered from Europe for our Museum. Unfortunately the lamented death of 
Mr, L. Semann in Paris caused a delay in the despatch of this collection, and we shall have to wait now a little 
longer, until some of the desirable comparisons and examination of fossils can be carried out. On this account 
I would not like to go farther into the examination of the Nerinee, than to point out a few generic types by a 
reference to already well known fossils. It would not be advisable in every case to propose names for them; 
a delicate question of this kind ought not to be settled upon mere figures of mostly incomplete specimens. 
