VERMICERAS. 95 



found somewhat earlier in the Upper Bucklandi bed. Neither Schlot. UOrbigni- 

 ana, nor any of the similar modifications so well exhibited in the collections at 

 Semnr and in the Boucault collection of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 

 are represented in this fauna. 



Vermiceras. 



Vermiceras is represented in the Northeastern Alps by Ver. Gonybeari. figured 

 by Hauer, and Ver. Hierlatzicum, Geyer, a dwarfed species. Amm. spiratissimum, 

 Hauer, occurs in company with Gonybeari in the Lower Bucklandi bed at Enzes- 

 feld ; but this is probably a species of Caloceras, similar to Gal. carasense, of the 

 large variety which occurs in the Bucklandi horizon in South Germany. 



Suess and Mojsisovics do not "give any species of this genus as occurring in 

 the Osterhornes mountains, and this is also the case in several other localities 

 where the formations are sufficiently well developed to lead one to expect that 

 the genus would be represented if at all common in this province. Gal. prespira- 

 tissimum, in the Angulatus bed of the Kammerkahr Alps and Adneth, as given by 

 Wahner, 1 is the only example of a transitional form. Nevertheless the great 

 development of caloceran species in the Mediterranean fauna shows that a com- 

 plete series of transitional forms probably occurred in that province. 



Giimbel does not mention Vermiceras, in his " Geognostische Beschreibung der 

 Bayerischen Alpen," as having been found in the Kammerkahr Alps, unless 

 indeed his Amm. spiratissimum is a true vermiceran form, or similar to Wahner's 

 species of prespiralissimum, nor did he find any species of this series in the gray 

 limestones at Gastatter Grabens. Herbich, in his " Szeklerland," 2 gives figures 

 and descriptions of Ariel, multicostatus, with both young and adult similar to 

 and probably the same as his Ariel. Conybeari, all having been found near Also 

 Bakos in the Besanyer mountains. The radical species Ver. spiratissimum made 

 its appearance in South Germany earlier than elsewhere, if we can regard, as 

 seems to us correct in every way, transitional forms like that on Sum in. PI. XL 

 Fig. 22, though named as belonging to Gal. laqueum, as really closer to Vermi- 

 ceras than to Caloceras. The principal transitions must have taken place in the 

 Caloceras bed of this basin, instead of in the Angulatus bed, as in the Mediter- 

 ranean province. 



The basins of South Germany and the Cote d'Or are about equivalent in 

 the number of transitional forms, and it is as easy to trace the gradations from 

 Caloceras to Ver. spiratissimum in one locality as in the other. The extraordinary 

 evolution of the series in the Cote d'Or indicates that it must have met with 

 its most favorable home on the bucklandian horizon in this basin. Even on the 

 Tuberculatus horizon several new varieties were evolved, some of which, however, 

 like debilitatus, Rey., must be considered as degradational, and consequently in- 

 dicate the decadence of the genus in this later fauna. 



According to Dumortier's figures and descriptions, this genus is represented 



1 Mojsis. et Neum., Beitr., V. p. 53. 



2 Mittheil. Jahrb. d. b. ungar. Geol. Anstalt, V., Part II. 



