118 PALEONTOLOGY OF NEW JERSEY. 



Crassatella cuneata. 



Plate XVII, Figs. 18-20. 



Crassatella pteropsis Gabb. Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phil., Vol. IV, 2d ser., p. 395, PI. 



XL VIII, Fig. 28. 

 G. pteropsis (Gabb). Conrad, Am. Jour. Couch., Vol. V, p. 47. 



Not G. pteropsis Conrad. Ihid., p. 279, PI. XL VI, Fig. 9. 



Grassatella cuneata Gabb. Synopsis, pp. 112 and 113. See also A. Jour. Couch., Vol. 

 V, p. 47. 



Sliell quite small, less than three fourths of an inch in length, subtri- 

 angular or subovate in outline and ventricose. Beaks prominent, elevated, 

 and situated anterior to the middle of the length. Greatest width of the 

 valves opposite the beaks. Anterior end broadly rounded and longest just 

 below the middle of the height ; posterior end much more sharply pointed 

 and slightly prolonged ; basal-margin gibbous opposite the beaks and 

 slightly sinuate between the middle and the posterior end of the shell. 

 Muscular imprints on the cast very strong and of large size. The above 

 characters are taken from a cast. The figure given by Mr. Gabb, cited 

 above, is of the shell itself, and is more distinctly triangular, with a very 

 narrow posterior cardinal slope, and as a matter of course with more i)ointed 

 and projecting beaks. 



I have no doubt but that the cast from New Jersey is specifically iden- 

 tical with Mr. Gabb's specimen, and I find no other form which agrees with 

 it among those described from within the limits of the State. The cast 

 described above was found with the type specimen of C. Monmouthensis 

 without separate label, but is clearly a distinct species. It is less oblique 

 and more erect; the beaks more prominent and situated more centrall}-; 

 the basal line is more gibbous in the middle and more sinuate just anterior 

 to the posterior end, while this end is pointed and destitute of the oljlique 

 truncation characteristic of that species, given to it by the broad cardinal 

 slope. The ventricose form and strongh' marked muscular scars show it to 

 be an adult specimen, notwithstanding its small size. It differs from C. 

 pteropsis Conrad, described and figured in the same volume, from Tippah 

 County, Mississippi, by its shorter triangular form, and very much less 

 extended posterior part, Avhich is also not recurved as in that one. In the 

 American Journal, Conch., Vol. V, p. 47, Mr. Conrad expresses a belief that 



