20O NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Spirifer primaevus Steininger var. atlanticus nov. 

 For comparison consult: 



Morris & Sharpe. Geol. Soc. Quar. Jour. 1846. 2: 276.pl. n, fig. 3. 

 (S. o r b i g n y i ) 



Steininger. Geognos. Beschreib. der Eifel, 1853. P- 7 2 > pi- 6, fig. 1. (S. 

 primaevus) 



Sharpe. Geol. Soc. Lond. Trans. 1856. Ser. 2, 7: 206, pi. 26, fig. 1, 2, 5. 

 (S. antarcticus) 



Hall. Palaeontology of New York. 1859. 3 : 4 22 > pi- 97- (S. arrec- 

 t us) 



Kayser. Fauna der aeltest. Devon-Ablagerungen des Harzes. 1878. 

 p. 165, 168, pi. 22, 23, 35. (S. decheni, S. h e r c y n i a e, S. 

 primaevus) 



Ulrich. Neues Jahrb. fur Mineral. Beil. Bnd. 8. 1893. p. 65, pi. 4, fig. 

 19, 20. (S. chuquisaca) 



Scupin. Die Spiriferen Deutschlands. 1900. p. 84-88, pi. 8. (S. 

 primaevus, S. fallax Giebel =S. decheni Kayser, S. 

 hercyniae Giebel. S. hercyniae var. primaevi- 

 f ormis) 



Clarke. N. Y. State Mus. Mem. 3. p. 46, pi. 6, fig. 26, 30. (S. m u r- 

 chisoni Orbigny) 



Reed. An. South African Mus. 1903. v. 4, pt 3, 7, p. 180, pi. 22, fig. 

 4. (S. o r b i g n y i Morris & Sharpe) 



The identity of species in the group represented by S.arrectus 

 (S. murchisoni) and S. primaevus, is involved with 

 obscurities of a kind which seem to indicate that in the considerable 

 variety of species names from many countries some are synonymous 

 terms and the majority, perhaps all the rest, are local expressions. 

 The general type of structure is that of a sparsely ribbed Spirifer 

 with the plications usually broadly rounded, a prominent fold and 

 sinus without plication in the latter and the entire surface finely 

 fimbriate. The interior of the ventral valve has a very strong 

 muscular scar appearing in the cast as a sulcate cordiform prom- 

 inence and the plications lose themselves posteriorly on account 

 of umbonal thickening of the valve. The shells now before us 

 from central Maine are identified as a variety of the widely dif- 

 fused Coblentzian species S. primaevus, not because of struc- 

 tural resemblances that can be fixed upon from the descriptions 

 given of that species and its close allies in the Coblentzian, S. 

 decheni, S. hercyniae and its variety primaeviformis, 

 but the determination is based on comparisons with specimens of 

 these species from Stadtfeld, Kellerwald and elsewhere kindly sup- 

 plied and identified by Prof. E. Kayser. These shells are of large 

 size with subtriangular outline, the anterolateral margins being 



