Geology and Mineralogy. 199 



formations somewhat younger, with the String ocephalns fauna of 

 the Euro- Asiatic type. c. s. 



6. Ueber den Bait und die Organisation der Lyttoniidw 

 Waagen ; by Dr. F. Noetling. Verh. Deutsch. Zool. Gesellsch., 

 1904,' pp. 103-122. — On the basis of excellent etched material, 

 this author here revises the remarkable brachiopod family Lyt- 

 toniidse, the genera Oldhamina and Xyttonia, and the species 

 0. decipiens and L. nobilis. In 1901 Noetling (Neues Jahrb., 

 Beil.-Band xiv, p. 452, foot-note) thought that Oldhamina was 

 a "remarkable type of Bryozoa," and because of the similarity 

 of the name to Oldhamia he proposed to change it to IVaagen- 

 opora. Under the rules of nomenclature, this change of name 

 can not be made. In the present paper, Noetling says nothing 

 of this proposed name or of his former view as to the nature of 

 these peculiar brachiopods. Other authors have regarded Old- 

 hamina as a gastropod and Lyttonia as fish teeth, but Noetling's 

 work makes it very clear that we are here dealing with degener- 

 ate brachiopods related to Strophalosia by the concavo-convex 

 form of the valves and especially by the cardinal process of the 

 dorsal valve, the dental plates, and the fixed or cemented nature 

 of the ventral valve. 



The author correctly states that these forms can not be brought 

 into relation with terebratuloid types like Megathyris, but does 

 not seem to have noticed the conclusion of Beecher and Schuchert 

 that the affinities of these brachiopods are near the Thecidiidse 

 as defined by the latter authors — forms closely related to the 

 strophomenoicls. Noetling's work makes it now necessary to 

 remove the Lyttoniidse from the family Thecidiidse and to associ- 

 ate them as a family with the productoids. The family Lyt- 

 toniidaa had its origin probably in Strop)halosia in Upper Carbon- 

 iferous time, and is to be regarded as an aberrant and degenerate 

 branch of that genus. 



According to Noetling, the great number of so-called ' ; lateral 

 septa " of the ventral valve may be regarded " as supports for 

 the lobes of the dorsal shell," or he thinks "that both median 

 stems of the mantle sinus lay in the space on both sides of the 

 median septum. From the latter came the side branches and con- 

 tinued in form as broad, flat, vascular strands between the lateral 

 lamellae." The reviewer does not regard these markings as due 

 to the mantle sinus nor as supporting septa, but believes that 

 they are caused by the locations of the brachia. In the produc- 

 toids the brachia are in the early ptycholophus or latest schizol- 

 ophus stage, as may be seen by the reniform markings in many 

 species, yet in the Lyttoniidse, owing to the progressive elonga- 

 tion of the shell, the brachia are longer and much more numer- 

 ously lobed, with the lobes directed laterally. Some of this 

 evolution is shown in the oldest Oldhamina (?) of the Carnic 

 Alps, described by Schellwien, having but six anteriorly directed 

 lobes ; and in the Keyserlingina with the same number of later- 

 ally directed lobes, recently described by Tschernyschew. In the 



