DALL] notes on some upper cretaceous volutid.e 9 



in Gabb's eyes was the possession of the single strong plait ; and his 

 type, an internal cast, upon which the name of V. conradi was be- 

 stowed, exhibited plainly only this character. The others are taken 

 from other species, but which are probably correctly referred to this 

 genus. The middle marl contains two or three species of Voluto- 

 derma; the upper marls three, of which one probably may be referred 

 to the subgenus Gosavia. 



The upper Cretaceous (Ripley) beds of the Gulf states were more 

 fortunate in the state of preservation of their fossils. In Texas was 

 obtained Volutoderma texana Conrad, upon which Conrad founded 

 his genus Rostcllitcs, a name preoccupied by Fischer since 1806. 

 The later Volutoderma Gabb, is based upon a Calif ornian species. 

 There are three species of this genus in the Ripley formation, one 

 of which is new, and of Volutomorpha, beside the V. eufaulensis 

 Conrad, there are five very remarkable species yet unpublished. All 

 these are large, brilliantly polished shells. 



Some time since 1 I described a recent shell under the name of 

 Volutilithes philippiana from off the southwest coast of Chile, in 677 

 fathoms. It has very much such sculpture as the northern one we 

 have been considering. The nucleus was eroded, but evidently had 

 not been swollen or conspicuously large. A series of other forms, 

 including some half dozen species, occur in the Santa Cruz Tertiary 

 beds of Chile and Patagonia, which from the similarities of decora- 

 tion seemed at that time likely to belong to the same group as the 

 abyssal recent shell. This was supposed to belong with the Volutoid 

 series having a shelly nucleus, and was so referred by me in a later 

 publication. 2 All were tentatively referred to the Volutoid series 

 and associated with Conrad's Rostellites; but more recent explora- 

 tions in Patagonia have furnished perfect nuclei of several of these 

 fossils, which have been figured by Ortmann, 3 who shows them to 

 belong to the Caricelloid series (formerly called Scaphelloid), which 

 have membranous and dehiscent protoconchs. It is altogether prob- 

 able that the recent V. philippiana Dall is related to the regional 

 fossil forms, and had, before erosion, a Caricelloid tip, in which case 

 it would belong to Adclomclon as finally revised. The question now 

 arises whether the northern Miopleiona is of the same stock, which, 

 if so determined, would place it in a different subfamily from the 

 Volutoderma, which is known to have a small shelly protoconch. 



1 Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., xn, p. 313, pi. ix, fig. 4, 1889. 



2 Trans. Wagner Inst, in, p. 69, 1890. 



3 Ortmann, Princeton Univ. Exp. Patagonia, iv, p. 234, 1902. cf. pi. XXXV, 

 fig. 4<i, and pi. xxxvi, fig. ic 



