﻿318 R. Ether'ulge, Jun. — Pal(sontoIogical Notes. 



VIII. — Pal^ontological Notes. 

 By R. Ethebidge, Junior, F.G.S., etc. 



THE following brief notes on rare, little known, or occasionally 

 new fossils, in some cases anticipating more detailed descriptions, 

 may be of interest to the readers of the Gteological Magazine. 



1. Spirorbis ambiguus, Fleming (Edinb. New Phil, Journ., 1825, 

 vol. xii. p. 246, t. 9, f. 3). — This little Annelide appears to have been 

 a good deal lost sight of by paleontologists, and for that reason it 

 may perhaps be well to call attention to it. S. ambiguus was not 

 mentioned by Prof. Morris in his " Catalogue of British Fossils," 

 nor by Messrs. Armstrong and Young in their " Catalogue of the 

 Carboniferous Fossils of the West of Scotland." It was originally 

 described by the Eev. Dr. Fleming, in his paper on the British 

 Testaceous Annelides, and placed in the second division of his 

 arrangement of the species of the genus Spirorbis, those with the 

 tube " destitute of longitudinal ridges." He obtained it from Cult's 

 Limeworlcs, near Pitlessie, Fife, adhering to the surface of Myalina 

 crassa, Flem. The tube expands towards the aperture, which is round ; 

 the umbilicus is open, and the surface unornamented, or very finely 

 wrinkled across. Unlike Sp. carbonarius, Murchison, it does not. so far 

 as I have observed, make a groove for itself in the surface of the body 

 to which it is attached. In general appearance Sp. ambiguus closely 

 resembles SpirogJyplius marginatiis, M'Coy. It will be a question for 

 careful consideration whether this species, from its early enunciation, 

 will not absorb some of the later described forms ; amongst the latter 

 I would recommend particular attention being joaid to S. mimda. Port- 

 lock, and S. omphalodes, Goldfuss. Mr. Bennie has obtained S. am- 

 biguus from Eoscobie Quarry, Fife, in addition to the typical locality. 

 [Shale above the Eoscobie Limestone, L. Carb. Limestone group.] 



2. Spirorbis carbonarius, Murchison, var. ? — The abundance 

 with which the typical form of S. carbonarius is to be met with in 

 all the strata about the horizon of the Burdiehouse Limestone 

 (Cement-stone group of the L. Carboniferous or Calciferous Sand- 

 stone Series) is something wonderful. In a quarry on the Linnhouse 

 Water, opposite the Oakbank Oil Works, near Mid Calder, there is a 

 small band of limestone almost entirely made up of this species, 

 and in company with it is to be occasionally found another peculiar 

 and handsome little Annelide, which has not before come under my 

 notice. It has the general characters of S. carbonarius, but the 

 periphery is produced into a number of minute tubercules, almost 

 amounting to spines, which give to the tube a very distinctive ap- 

 pearance. There is a described species having this character, 

 Spirorbis Siluricus, Eichwald (LetliEea Eossica, vol. i. p. 668, t. 34, 

 f, 1), from the Coral Limestone of the Isle of Oesel, and the Old Eed 

 Sandstone of the Department of Novgorod, and so like are our 

 Lower Carboniferous forms to it, that I do not know how to distinguish 

 them, although I scarcely like listing it under Eichwald's name 

 without a direct comparison of specimens. In the mean time, as its 

 other characters correspond with those of S. carbonarius, we may 

 consider it as a well-marked variety of that species. 



Collector, Mr. James Bennie. 



