350 Scientific Intelligence. 



7 plates. — This elaborate work describes in great detail the 

 development of the highest Cretaceous ammonite mentioned in 

 the title, and having a ceratite suture line. The development is 

 as follows : (1) Protoconch stage ; (2) Embryonic or Sphaero- 

 ceras stage ; (3) Metaconch or Oxynoticeras stage (has always 

 five volutions irrespective of size of shell) ; (4) Paraconch or 

 Indoceras stage. 



The author concludes that on the basis of the developmental 

 characters of the suture line alone it is at present not safe to 

 decide as to the age of the strata in which the form occurs, for 

 the reason that as yet we know the complete development of but 

 few ammonites, and further that a primitive form may occur in 

 young beds and a highly specialized species in old deposits* 



In regard to the ancestry of Indoceras, the author concludes 

 that " it had a different descent than Sphenodiscus or Placenti- 

 'ceras and that it can hardly be arranged with these in the family 

 Pulchelliidse, or with the Upper Cretaceous Oxynotus forms : 

 Garnieria, Lenticeras and others are to be united in a family of 

 indoceratids " (p. 92). 



9. Untersuchimgen uber die Familie lyttoniidae Waag. 

 emend. Noetling • von F. Noetling. Palseontographica, li, 19o6, 

 pp. 129-153, pis. xv-xviii. — Some years ago, the author, while in 

 India, collected in the Upper Permian of Chideru in the Salt 

 Range an abundance of the genera Oldhamina and Lyttonia. 

 As some of his specimens are preserved as silicious pseudo- 

 morphs, he was able through careful etching with hydrochloric 

 acid to free them from the limestone and thus to reveal the 

 entire structure of these remarkable and highly degenerate brach- 

 iopods. So strikingly aberrant are these forms that at first they 

 were described as gasteropods (Bellerophon) and later as the 

 teeth of fishes (leptodus). The latter generic name Waagen 

 displaced by his Oldhamina when he discovered these remains 

 to be brachiopods. This proceeding is irregular, and it is to be 

 regretted that Noetling does not return to Leptodus, especially 

 after he remarks that according to the law of priority Waagen 

 had no right to make this change (p. 133). On the other hand, 

 Oldhamina can not be confused with Oldhamia even though 

 the names sound nearly alike ; and it is therefore further to be 

 regretted that Noetling in a half-hearted way tries to dispossess 

 the former by suggesting Oldhamella. The author prints the 

 name in a foot-note (p. 129), and though it is only suggested, 

 Hot seriously proposed, it can not be overlooked. Thus another 

 synonym is added to the terminology of these shells. Some 

 years ago he considered these fossils to be Bryozoa, and at that 

 time proposed the name Waagenopora. Thus is literature bur- 

 dened by giving way to printing all the unassimilated thoughts 

 passing through an author's mind. 



These shells are cemented to foreign bodies by the umbo of 

 the ventral valve, and the scar of attachment is plainly pre- 

 served in young and apparently in adult specimens also (see pi. 



