Maryland Geological Survey 443 



Odoxtofusus medians Whitfield 



Odontofusus medians Whitfield, 1892, Mon. U. S. Geol. Survey, vol. xviii, 



p. 67, pi. v, figs. 18, 19, ? 20, ? 21. 

 Odontofusus medians Weller, 1907, Geol. Survey of New Jersey, Pal., vol. 



iv, p. 761, pi. xc, figs. 1, 2, ? 3-6 (ex parte). 



Description. — " Shell as known from casts, slender, turreted, with ven- 

 trieose volutions, which are most convex above the middle of the exposed 

 part ; body whorl rapidly contracted below and extended into a slender, 

 straight canal; spire slender, longer than the shell below when viewed 

 from the back; apical angle 35° to 40°; volutions five in number, with 

 strongly marked suture lines; columella slender, marked by a single, 

 sharply defined, oblique plication near or perhaps below the middle of its 

 length ; aperture obliquely pyriform, broadest above the middle and nar- 

 rowed below, equal to or longer than one-half the length of the entire shell ; 

 volutions marked by a moderate number of vertical folds which extend 

 from suture to suture on the whorls, and on the body volution can be 

 traced nearly to the axis of the shell and are directed slightly forward in 

 their passage from above downward. No evidence of spiral lines on the 

 surface can be seen. 



" This species is intermediate between the other two species herein 

 described, in its apical angle, in the ventricosity of the volutions, and in 

 the number of vertical folds crossing the volutions. The last volution 

 does not increase any more rapidly than those above, in which feature it 

 agrees with 0. rostellaroides, but differs from 0. typicus, and in the com- 

 parative strength of the columella it differs from either in being more 

 slender. The species is very marked and distinct from either of them and 

 is readily recognized. On one of the examples there apears to be a very 

 faint indication of a second plication on the columella a short distance 

 above the generic one, which may or may not be real. But if a natural 

 feature, the space between them is entirely flat. Other specimens show 

 no evidence whatever of this second plication. The vertical folds crossing 

 the volutions are also much stronger on the one having the second ridge, 

 and it may possibly indicate a distinct species." — Whitfield, 1892. 



Type Locality. — Upper Freehold, New Jersey. 



