Scientific Intelligence. 263 



SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE. 



Geology. 



1. Ueber JParapsonema cryptophysa Clarke und deren Stel- 

 lung im System • von Th. Fuchs. Central!)], f. Min., etc., 1905, 

 pp. 357-359.— In 1902, Clarke (54th Ann. Regents Kept. N. Y. 

 State Mus., pp. 172-178) described a most perplexing and highly 

 interesting fossil, under the title "Paropsonema cryptophya : A 

 peculiar echinoderm from the Intumescens-zone (Portage beds) 

 of western New York." Fuchs reviews Clarke's paper and adds 

 that " the entire organization is wholly different from all known 

 Echinodermata and can not be readily compared with any. 

 According to my view, we here have the remains of quite 

 another animal, namely, a medusa, related to Porpita." 



A very excellent cast of one of Clarke's finest specimens was 

 presented by him to Peabody Museum of Yale University. It 

 does not possess unmistakable echinoderm structures, although 

 the radial parts, with their numerous transverse divisions, do in 

 a way recall the ambulacra of Paleozoic echinoids. Unlike these, 

 however, the radial parts of Paropsonema are bifurcated, in 

 adult specimens, as many as four times. Then, too, the upper 

 surface is wholly unlike the lower and is not made up of plates. 

 Further, associated with this fossil crinoids occur and in these 

 the calcareous plates are preserved, while in Paropsonema there 

 is nothing other than a cast or the infiltrated filling of the cavi- 

 ties. Fuchs states that the lower surface " has a great number 

 [60 to 80] of arched folds that increase by division or intercala- 

 tion of new radii and carry the individual polyps. . . . Should 

 it prove that my view is the correct one, we then have in this 

 organism, as far as I am aware, the first evidence of a fossil 

 siphonophore related to Porpita." 



The present writer likewise thinks it more probable that Par- 

 opsonema is related to Porpita and Velella (see Agassiz, " The 

 Porpitidae and Velellidse," Mem. Mus. Comp. Zool., Harvard, 

 VII, No. 2, 1883) rather than to any echinoderm. c. s. 



2. Phytogeny of the Races of Volutilithes petrosus • by Bur- 

 nett Smith. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1906, pp. 52-76, and 

 one plate. — This interesting paper gives the results of a study 

 based on many specimens of Volutilithes petrosus derived from 

 nine localities, and on four other species. The forms of 'Voluti- 

 lithes first appear in non-normal marine deposits (Lignitic), hav- 

 ing radiated from the outer deeper normal marine waters. These 

 peripheral races undergo "a course of evolution which was a 

 direct reflection of their unfavorable environment. '. . . The 

 senility becomes more and more extreme with the course of 

 time." The normal, slow and even development takes place in 

 the more open favorable environment. c. s. 



3. Notes on some Jurassic fossils from Franz Josef Land, 

 brought by a Member of the Ziegler Exploring Expedition ; by 

 R. P. Whitfield. Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., May, 1906, pp. 

 131-134, 1 pi. — The notes relate to Ammonites, Mollusca, and 

 land plants. 



