NOTICE OF A VERY LARGE GONIATITE FROM EASTERN KANSAS. 



By F. B. Meek. 



My <atteutiou was receutly called by Mr. Stevenson, of Dr. Haydeu's^ 

 United States Geological Survey of the Territories, to a ponderous^ 

 irregular mass of hard limestone, that had been shipped to General 

 Charles Ewing, from Osage, Eastern Kansas, by the Rev. Paul Ponzi- 

 glione, of the Osage mission. It contained shells of Spirifer cameratuSy 

 Athyris suhtilifa, and other forms common in the upper beds of the Coal- 

 Measures of that region ; but the object that had attracted especial 

 attention was a brownish, smooth, oval-subglobose body, exposed on 

 one side by breakiug the mass from the parent rock. 



At a first glance, this oval body seemed to present a startling resem- 

 blance to the upper surface of a large human skull. On a closer exam- 

 ination, however, although sutures were visible in it, they were seen to 

 be very different from those of the human cranium. In other words, 

 they were found to be the septal sutures of a gigantic shell of the genus 

 Goniatites. As thus seen partly exposed, this shell measures six inches 

 in breadth or convexity by about nine inches in its greater diameter. 

 On breaking away portions of the enveloping rock, however, it soon 

 became evident that there was still another volution outside of that first 

 seen, thus increasing the convexity to about nine inches, and the greater 

 diameter to about eleven inches. Yet this outer volution is septate as far 

 as it can be traced in the rock ; and as there must have been at least 

 one-half of another turn, and possibly more, to form the outer non-sep- 

 tate chamber for the reception of the animal, I think we may safely infer 

 that the greater diameter of this shell, when entire, must have been about 

 sixteen inches, and possibly more. So far as I can remember, this would 

 therefore be one of the largest, if not the largest, species of the genus 

 Goniatites ever discovered. G. Marcellensis, and some other species, are 

 said to have attained to the dimensions of twelve inches in their greater 

 diameter; but these are discoid, and not subgiobose shells, and conse- 

 quently their convexity and entire volume are much less than the shell 

 here under consideration. 



So far as I have been able to determine, this shell agrees well in its 

 septa and form with a large Goniatite from Kansas, figured by Mr. 

 Worthen and the writer on page 390 of the second volume of the Illi- 

 nois Geological Eeports, and there referred to G. globulosus, M. & W. 

 The type-specimens of that species were found in the Upper Goal-Meas- 

 ure near Springfield, 111., and seem, so far as I am aware, rarely if ever 

 to attain there a size of more than about one to two and one-fourth, 

 inches in their greater diameter. 



The Kansas shell mentioned above, and that here under considera- 

 tion, both agree very closely in form and their septa with the Illinois 

 species; but, although mere differences of size are not generally reliable 

 characters for the separation of species, the question naturally suggests 

 itself, whether shells differing so extremely in size (the large being found 

 in one district and the small in another) are really specifically the 

 same ? Although not fully satisfied that this may not be the case, it 

 seems to me desirable that this huge Kansas shell should be at least 

 viewed as belonging to a distinct variety. Consequently, I would pro- 

 pose to designate it as G. glohulosus var. excelsus. 



