﻿HISTORICAL NOTICES. 



9 



nacreous sheaths," from the Lias of Lyme Regis, and represents one specimen, stated 

 to be unique, from the cabinet of Miss Philpotts, which shows together the guard, 

 phragmocone, and ink-bag ; he names it B. ovalis. Of B. pisiilliformis, Sow., also, a 

 specimen is figured, showing traces of the ink-bag. A third Belemnite from the Lias, very 

 short, with thin guard, is called B. brevis ? A restoration of " Belemno-sepia," with the 

 included shelly parts, usually called Belemnite, is attempted, and the analogies of the 

 Belemnitic animal are discussed in the spirit of the remarks of Blainville. 



In consequence of the cutting through Oxford Clay at Christian Malford, in Wilts, by 

 the Great Western Railway, Mr. W. C. Pearce, Mr. S. P. Pratt, Mr. Buy, Mr. Re- 

 ginald Mantell, Mr.W.Cunnington, and other collectors, were able to obtain many admirable 

 examples of two groups of Cephalopoda, which gave occasion to several valuable memoirs. 

 In January, 1S42, Mr. Pearce noticed a conical shell which resembled the Belemnite 

 by having, like it, a concamerated portion traversed by a marginal siphuncle, aud 

 protected by a brown, thick, shelly covering, which gradually became thinner towards the 

 superior part. " Immediately above the chambers is an ink-bag, resting on what resembles 

 the upper part of a sepiostaire, and composed of a yellow substance finely striated 

 transversely, being formed of larninas of unequal density." Some other notices are added, 

 and the author assigns to his specimens the generic name of Belemnoteuthis. 1 Mr. Cun- 

 nington afterwards added the specific name. It has been regarded as congeneric with 

 Acanthoteuthis of Miinster, and called A. antiquus. 



The 'Philosophical Transactions' for 1844 contain the important memoir of Prof. 

 Owen on the Belemnites found in the Christian Malford cutting. Many parts of the 

 structure of Belemnites, and the affinity of the animal to other Cephalopoda, are successfully 

 cleared up in this instructive and valuable essay. The author was, however, not supplied 

 at that time with such satisfactory specimens of true Belemnites as of the Acanthoteuthidse 

 already mentioned. In consequence, these groups were not distinguished, and the 

 beautiful restored figure ('Phil. Trans./ 1844, pi. viii) is not so satisfactory as later 

 discoveries might have furnished the means of producing. To this memoir, and to a later 

 work of the professor, 2 we shall refer in future pages for information on special points of 

 structure. 



In 1 848, Dr. Mantell communicated to the Royal Society " Observations on some 

 Belemnites and other Fossil Remains of Cephalopoda, discovered by his son, Mr. Reginald 

 Mantell, C.E., in the Oxford Clay at Christian Malford, near Trowbridge, in Wiltshire." 

 Two species of straight-shelled Cephalopoda are here figured and described, and shown to 

 belong to two genera, viz., one the Belemnoteuthis of Pearce, with ink-bag, uncinated 

 arms, and a chambered shell, with thin investing fibrous sheath ; the other a Belemnite 

 common in the Oxford Clay, to which several names have been assigned. Now, for the 

 first time, the two narrow processes which extend beyond the divisions of the phragmocone 



1 1 Proceedings of Geol. Soc.,' vol. iv, 592. 



2 'Palseontology,' 8vo, ed. 2, 1861. 



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