THE 



GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 



NEW SERIES. DECADE III. VOL. VII. 



No. IV.— APRIL, 1890. 



ORIG-IUAL ARTICLES. 



I. — Notes on the Paleontology op Western Australia. 



By A. H. Foord, F.G.S. 



[PLATES VI. and VII.] 



[Continued from the March Number, p. 106 ) 



Spirifera lata, M'Coy. PL VI. 



1847. Spirifera lata, M'Coy, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. xx. pp. 233, pi. xiii. fig. 7. 

 1877- Spirifer latus, de Koninck, Kecherches sur les Fossiles Paleozoiques de la 



Nouvelles-Galles du Sud (Australie), p. 244. 

 1878. Spirifera lata, It. Etheridge, jun., Cat. Australian Fossils, p. 56. 



" Transversely rhoinboidal, moderately gibbose, width four times 

 the length ; sides flattened, regularly attenuating to the very acute 

 cardinal angles ; cardinal area broad, flat; mesial fold wide, defined, 

 angular, smooth ; about sixteen to eighteen slightly convex, simple, 

 smooth ribs on each side of the mesial fold, becoming indistinct as 

 they approach the cardinal augles, so as to leave nearly a third of 

 the length of the sides smooth." 



" This differs from the widest varieties of the S. disjuncta, Sow., 

 by its defined and smooth mesial hollow, the extent of the smooth 

 space at the end of the sides, and the smaller number and greater 

 width of the radiating ridges, which are also much less prominent ; 

 the smoothness of the mesial fold and width of the cardinal area 

 separate it from the S. convoluta, Phil. ; and from the S. Roemerianus, 

 de Kon., it is known by its size, greater width, smooth cardinal 

 extremities and flatter and wider lateral ridges. Length [of the 

 type-specimen] 1 inch 1 line, width 4 inches." 



The specimens representing this species in the present Collection 

 are crowded together in a slab of coarse, yellowish sandstone. They 

 are all more or less covered by the matrix, but the characters of the 

 species may easily be made out in the aggregate, and these are found 

 to agree perfectly well with M'Coy's species. 



This fine group of specimens was collected by the Hon. John 

 Forrest, C.M.G., F.G.S. , Surveyor-General and Commissioner of 

 Crown Lands for Western Australia. 



Judging from the figure, which is that of a very imperfect 

 specimen of a ventral valve, I should say that Mr. Etheridge's 

 Sperifera convoluta ? (Phil.) really belongs to the present species. 1 



1 See Quart. Journ. Geo!. Soc. vol. xxviii. 1872, appendix to It. Daiutree's 

 Geology of Queenland, by E. Etheridge, F.P.S., p. 335, pi. xvii. fig. 3. 



DECADE III. VOL. VII. NO. IV. 10 



