306 F. R. Coicper Reed^The Bokkeveld Beds, 8. Africa. 



BKACHIOPODA. 



ScAPHiocoELiA (?) AFRiOANA, sp. nov. (PI. XVIT, Figs. 1, la, 16, Ic ; 

 2, 2a, 26 ; 3, 3a.) 



Diagnosis. — Shell elongate - oval to subcircular, plauo - convex. 

 Pedicle valve inflated, strongly convex, compressed laterally, 

 distinctly keeled and angulated on back ; beak large, high, 

 incurved, rising well above stronglj'^ curved hinge-line and arching 

 over beak of opposite valve, with sharply angular lateral edges 

 and large concave triangular pseudo-area below it ; large triangular 

 delthyrium (? covered by concave plate), with margins slightly 

 infolded ; small subapical foramen present in beak. Brachial valve 

 flat or very feebly convex ; beak smaller and lower, and less 

 incurved than that of pedicle valve. 



Interior of pedicle valve with pair of thick, strong, subparallel or 

 slightly divergent dental plates, slightly concave and closely 

 embracing sides of cardinal callosity of opposite valve (Figs. 1, 

 16, Ic). Muscular impression large, oval, extending about one- 

 third the length of the valve, slightly depressed and margined 

 by weak ridges diverging from bases of dental plates, which are 

 connected by a low, faint, transverse ridge in umbonal cavity ; the pair 

 of large elongate diductor scars are distinct in the muscular area, 

 but the adductor scars are not visible. 



Interior of brachial valve with large massive uraboual callosity or 

 hinge-plate completely fused with bottom of valve and filling up 

 whole of cavity of beak ; anterior face of callosity is vertical, 

 marked with shallow longitudinal groove and deep central pit, and 

 it bears on its free edge a pair of small, short, blunt cylindrical 

 processes (bases of crura) projecting into the pedicle valve (Figs. 16, 

 Ic). Muscular impression large, oval, consisting of pair of deeply 

 sunk, oval, posterior adductors indistinctly separated from a pair of 

 rather larger, less sunk, anterior adductors, faintly defined in front ; 

 a pair of low, rounded, diverging ridges bound the impression laterally, 

 and a narrow, thin, median ridge, thickest and highest between the 

 posterior adductors, divides it longitudinally. 



Surface of shell marked with 30-40 low flattened ribs, closely 

 placed and separated only by narrow grooves. In the internal 

 casts the ribs show more distinctly than on the exterior of the shell 

 itself. A few concentric growth - ridges are present in some 

 specimens. Shell substance thick, massive, impunctate. 



Dimensions : 



Specimens i and ii are in the South African Museum, Cape Town. 

 Specimens in and iv have been presented by the South African 

 Museum to the Sedgwick Museum, and are in the latter. 



Locality. — Gouritz Eiver, north of the Langebergen. 



Bemarks. — Eight specimens of this interesting fossil have been 



