160 Scientific Intelligence. 



another genus. It may be best to erect a new genus with M. 

 woodioardi as the genoholotype, and a new subgenus with M. 

 caudatus as the type species. 



The Pelecj^poda, as far as their generic reference is concerned, 

 are very inadequately treated. One is referred to Posidonomya ?, 

 2 to Modiolopsis, 1 to Synek?, 3 to Davidia, and 1 to Ctenodonta. 

 While these names may indicate the types of pelecypods repre- 

 sented, yet it is safe to state that a careful study will show that 

 all belong to other, probably new genera. The species are small 

 and thin-shelled. In a conversation with Professor Verrill he 

 concluded that all these Lower Cambrian bivalves were probably 

 free-swimming forms. 



The brachiopods are also very unsatisfactorily referred gener- 

 ically, and the illustrations are inadequate for more accurate 

 determination. 



This fauna of Portugal is certainly of Lower Cambrian age, 

 and while it has relationship with that of York, Penn., yet in its 

 trilobites and especially in its pelecypods it has a faunal facies 

 entirely distinct from any American Lower Cambrian fauna. 



c. s. 



6. Paraphorhynchus, a new genus of KinderhooJc Brachio- 

 poda ; by Stuart Weller. Trans. Acad. Sci. St. Louis, xv, 

 1905, pp. 259-264, pi. 1. — This rhynchonelloid form has the inte- 

 rior generic characters of Camarotoechia, with the exterior of 

 Pugnax, to which is added a finely striated surface of the shell. 

 The genoholotype is Paraphorhynchus elongatum, sp. nov. Other 

 species are P. transversum, sp. nov., Phynchonella striatocostata 

 Meek and Worthen, P. medialis Simpson, and P. striata Simpson. 



c. s. 



7. Sympterura Minveri, n. g. et sp. : a Devonian Ophiurid 

 from Cornwall; by F. A. Bathee. Geol. Mag., II, 1905, pp. 



161-169, pi. 6. — This important paper describes in detail the 

 skeleton of this brittle-star. The description is followed by a 

 learned interpretation of the parts of the organism and their rela- 

 tion to other ophiurid structures. c. s. 



8. The ancestral origin of the North American Unionidw, or 

 fresh-water Mussels ; by Charles A. White. Smithsonian Misc. 



Coll. (Quarterly Issue), June, 1905, pp. 75-88, pis. 26-31.— After 

 a long silence in Paleontology, Dr. White returns to a group of 

 shells on which he has often worked. 



The oldest American Unionidae occur in the Triassic. They 

 " are all of simple form, and none of them exhibits distinctive 

 prototypal relationship to the living Mississippi River fauna." 

 Of Jurassic species, but seven are known and none of these 

 appears to be directly related to the living shells. Toward the 

 close of the Cretaceous, "the family received an extraordinary 

 development" and increased its diversity. In the Laramie 

 strata are found the greatest number of species of Unio having 

 prototypal features connecting them with existing species in so 

 marked a manner " that Professor Whitfield has given names to 



