42 PALEONTOLOGY OF NEW JERSEY. 



Pyropsis Reileti, n. sp. 



Plate II, Figs. 11-30. 



Shell of medium size, siibglobular or globularly ovate in. general form, 

 with a moderately elevated spire and subventricose volutions which are 

 somewhat rapidly enlarged outwardly; volutions about three in number, 

 the last one forming the principal bulk of the shell, and regularly rounded 

 from the suture line to the beginning of the very slightly extended anterior 

 beak; the inner volutions nearly on a level with each other, but the outer 

 one dropping more rapidly below the imier, giving the greater height to 

 the spire; volutions regularly rounded, without any angulation in the upper 

 part, especially on the last one; aperture large, semilunate, modified above 

 on the inside by the projection of the inner volution; cavity left in the cast 

 by the removal of the columellar axis very large and marked on the surface 

 by a series of circular protuberances which gradually increase in size with 

 the growth of the shell; the inner one of four, which can be seen on one 

 cast, and which is situated at the inner limit of the last volution, is only 

 about a twelfth of an inch in diameter, while the outer one is rather more 

 than one-fourth of an inch across; the surface of the shell marked by sev- 

 eral strong, coarse, revolving ridges, which have left their imprint only very 

 slightly on the surface of the cast; the outer Hp of the shell seems also to 

 have been slightly expanded, at least near the upper part of the aperture. 



This shell, as shown by the internal casts, diflPers from the other species 

 herein described in its more elevated spire and rounded but less gibbous 

 and less ventricose volutions, especially the outer one. The axis has also 

 been much stronger in proportion to the size of the specimen, and the 

 anterior canal shorter and less distinct. The peculiar flattened nodelike 

 protuberances on the columellar hp may be the result of accident. Indeed, 

 it would seem almost impossible for the animal to have purposely formed 

 and retained such protuberances, as they are not continuous or connected 

 but are each one isolated from the others, but their gradual increase in size 

 as the shell has developed is a peculiar feature and gives them a meaning 

 which they otherwise would not possess. The shell, however, is specifi- 

 cally distinct from the others, entirely independent of this peculiarity. 



