732 CHARLES SCHUCHERT 



Notes on the fauna of the Maecuru formation {^Oriskany). — 

 Clarke (5:80) states that the trilobites 



indicate very strong early Devonian (Hercynian) traitb. In fact, no other element 



of the fauna bears so strongly the impress of the earliest Devonian It 



must therefore be conceded that the ver> early Devonian expression of the trilo- 

 bitic element of the Maecuru fauna affects the time value of the entire faunal 

 association. 



Of the gastropods, the laterally compressed species of Platyceras, 

 as P. whitii, P. hussaki, and P. steinmanni, are related to P. com- 

 pressum Nettelroth, of the Louisville Onondaga. P. hartti is the 

 type found in the Helderbergian and Oriskanian. The bellero- 

 phontids are of the type found in the German " Spiriferen-Sandstein " 

 (= Lower Devonic). Bucania freitasi is of the Bellerophon leda type 

 of the Hamilton, and Ptomatis forbesi has its nearest ally in P. patulus 

 of the Onondaga and Hamilton. 



Of the pelecypods, Actinopteria eschwegii is closely related to 

 A. boydi of the Hamilton of New York and the Onondaga of Louis- 

 ville. Modiomorpha helmreicheni and M. sellowi are representative 

 of forms in the Schoharie grit and the Onondaga. Taechomya rathbuni 

 and T. freitasi have affinities with Onondaga and " Spiriferen-Sand- 

 stein" species. Cimitaria karsteni is another form of the latter type. 



Of brachiopods, Productella maecuruensis is related to P. shumar- 

 diana of the Louisville Onondaga. Chonetes freitasi is closely related 

 to C. macrostriata Walcott, of the Lower Devonic of the Eureka 

 District. C. jersey ensis Weller is another species of this type. Ano- 

 plia nucleata is a North American Upper and Lower Oriskanian 

 and basal Onondaga species. Clarke (5:87) states that its existence 

 in the Maecuru and Curua faunas is of much significance. Rhipido- 

 mella musculosa is another characteristic North American Oriskanian 

 form. Of alate Spirifer of the Oriskanian S. cumberlandiae-intermedia 

 type there are three species {S. buarquianus, the guide fossil of the 

 Maecuru formation, S. coelhoanus, and S. derbyi, S. lauro-sodreanus 

 is of the S. macropleura type, and a similar undescribed form occurs 

 in the Frog Mountain, Alabama, Oriskanian. Anoplotheca fiabellites 

 is one of the most characteristic Oriskanian brachiopods. In North 

 America Amphigenia elongata is an Onondaga species, but in the 

 Oriskanian of IlHnois and Tennessee occurs the small variety A. 



