Antediluvian Zoology and Botany. 



269 



w- 



Ventriculites. — Mr. Mantell has investigated this previously- 

 obscure class of fossils, and illustrated their peculiar conform- 

 ation by an extensive suite of specimens in his Geology of Sussex, 



He conceives that this 

 animal (for it really ap- 

 pears to be one animal, 

 rather than a congeries) 

 possessed the powers of 

 dilatation and contraction 

 of its disk, which ac- 

 counts for the almost 

 infinite variety of form 

 which individuals of the 

 same species are seen to 

 present. (Jig. 55.) It is 

 fair to state that Dr. 

 Fleming objects to this 

 hypothesis, and is dis- 

 inclined to remove them 

 from the ^Spongiae. Cer- 

 tainly the recent ^Spongia 

 otaheitea of Lamarck, also those of ElHs (tab. 59. figs. 1, 2, 3.), 

 bear an extraordinary resemblance to the Ventriculites. 



Mr. Rose has furnished us (Vol. II. p. 335—339.) with 

 several other illustrations of this zoophyte. The following 

 figure from Mantell, tab. xiv. fig. 2. represents Ventriculites 

 radiatus, having the external surface completely expanded. 

 (Jg- 56.) 



T 3 



V, radiatus Mantell, tab. x. Chalk. 



