﻿BRITISH CARBONIFEROUS BRACHIOPODA. 



Collection in the British Museum (erroneously labelled T. plicatclla, Dalman 1 ), and mount- 

 ing nine specimens, with three to five ribs in the sinus, are undoubtedly Camarophorias, 

 and that his notes state that they are identical with C. Schlotheimi . With all this evidence 

 before me, I considered it necessary to ascertain what was really the Anomites crumena of 

 Martin, and whether the Permian C. Schlotheimi does really occur in the Carboniferous 

 limestone ; and it was not until after much comparison and investigation that I became 

 convinced that not only were the Carboniferous specimens alluded to by Professor King 

 and others specifically identical with the Permian Camarophoria, but that it was impossible 

 to distinguish the last from A. crumena of Martin. 8 



The term Schlotheimi, given to the species in 1834, by Baron V. Buch, must, there- 

 fore (much to my regret), be added to the synonyms of Martin's A. crumena, as we cannot 

 preserve two name« for the same species. C. crumena partakes of the general misfortune 

 (as far as palaeontologists are concerned) of presenting endless variations in shape and 

 number of ribs ; thus we find specimens with three, four, five, and six ribs on the mesial fold, 

 and those on the lateral portions of the shell vary also in number-, width, and degree of 

 projection. In many examples the posterior portion of the shell is almost smooth, the 

 ribs occupying only the anterior half; but in other specimens the ribs commence to be 

 visible from the extremity of the beak and umbone, and extend uninterruptedly to the 

 margin. Martin's figure portrays one of the shapes presented by this species, and I have 



1 Fig. 9 represents the largest specimen in question. 



2 Mr. Kirkby states that after having carefully examined the specimens and figures of Camarophoria 

 crumena I sent him, with some hundreds of C. Schlotheimi, he could not find a single character dis- 

 tinguishing the one from the other. In both the series of specimens we have the same variation 

 in length and width, the same difference in the elevation of the mesial fold, and the same latitude in the 

 number of ribs ornamenting that fold ; and that he should certainly consider both the Carboniferous and 

 Permian specimens to belong to one species ; that had he found the Carboniferous specimen in a Permian 

 locality, and especially in the compact limestone, he would have referred them to C. Schlotheimi, withou 

 any doubt whatever. 



As C. crumena is a rather important species, I have reproduced Martin's original figure (PI. XXV, fig. 

 3), and will now transcribe the description he has given of his specimen : 



" Conchyliolilhus anomites crumena, scrotiformis, sulcis longitudinalibus subobsolescentibus, margine 

 sino 3-plicato s.p. 



" A fossil shell. The original an anomia. Perforate, valves convex, purse-like; or bellied and gra- 

 dually increasing in size, from the beaks to the opposite extremity. Hinge curved, compact. Foramen 

 oblong, very minute (rarely visible), situate under the apex of the larger beak, which is sharp-pointed and 

 incumbent. The surface of the shell longitudinally furrowed ; the furrows few, not more than ten or 

 twelve, deep at the margin, but gradually becoming indistinct as they approach the beaks. The three 

 central furrows form, in the smaller valve, a convex wave, answered in the other valve by a concave one ; 

 both terminating in a deep, three-plaited sinus at the margin. Loc. Winster." 



The representation by Sowerby, tab. lxxxiii, fig. 3, of the ' Mineral Conchology,' does not convey an 

 accurate idea of the species under description ; and I do not believe that Martin's specimen could have 

 been made use of for that illustration, as supposed by Professor King. Some of his figures, likewise, 

 appear to have been taken from a Jurassic Rhynchonella. 



