CHAPTER III. 



ON THE CLASSHICATION OF THE BRACHIOPODA. 



By THOMAS DAVIDSON, F.G.S., &c. 



Sub-Kingdom — MOLLUSOA, Cumer. 



Class — BRACHIOPODA, Cuvier} Dumeril} 



Order— PALLIOBRANCHIATA, Blainville!' 



The account of the gradual progress of researches in this class having been already 

 detailed by Baron Von Buch,* Messrs. d'Orbigny/ King,^ de Verneuil/ Gray,^ M'Coy,^ 

 de Koninck, and others, I will pass lightly over the literature of the subject, and simply 

 recapitulate, in a condensed shape, its most prominent features.^" 



All naturalists seem disposed to admit that Fabius Columna was the first author who 

 called attention to some of the shells we are about to describe, and which he distinguished 

 by the denomination of Concha Anomya}'' and in his figures it is not difficult to recognize 

 several well-known species belonging to the genera Terebratula and Uhynchonella. The 

 Concha Anomia was admitted by Lister and other authors, but in 1696 Llhwyd having 

 proposed the name of Terebratula^^ for the same shells, this last denomination was pre- 

 ferred by the generality of subsequent writers to that of Anomia, again adopted by 



1 Ann. du Mus., vol. i, p. 44; and in Koissy Moll., vol. vi, p. 460, 1805. — Brachiopoda, from the two 

 variously curved and cirrated arras or labial appendages. 



2 Trait. Element., 1806.— Lamarck; Phil. ZooL, 1809. 



^ Die. des So. Nat., t. xxxii, p. 298, 1824. — Palliobranchiata, from the respiratory system being com- 

 bined with the mantle, on which the vascular ramifications are distributed. 



4 Uber Terebateln, 1834 ; and Mem. de la Soc. Geol. de France, vol. iii, 1st ser., p. 106, 1838. 



5 Considerations Zool. et Geol. sur les Brach. Pal. Fran9. Ter. Cretaces, vol. iv, p. 281, 1847. 



* Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist., vol. xviii, July, 1846; and a Monograph of English Permian Fossils, 

 p. 67, 1849. 



"^ Geol. of Russia, vol. ii, 1845. 



8 Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist., p. 435, 1848 ; and Cat. of the Brach. in the Brit. Mus., 1853. 



^ Synopsis of the Carb. Limest. Fossils of Ireland, p. 102, 1844 ; and Brit. Pal. Foss. in the Cambridge 

 Museum, 1852. 



^° The Council of the Palseontographical Society having expressed a wish that we should condense our 

 subject as far as possible, it has been found necessary to leave out many interesting details which would 

 have extended this introduction far beyond the limits assigned. (23d July, 1852.) 



11 De purpura, 1616. 12 Lithophylacii Britannici Ichnographia. 



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