510 Systematic Paleontology 



Dentalium taupeeculum Meek and Hayden 



Dentalium pauperculum Meek and Hayden, 1861, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., 



Phila., for 1860, p. 178. 

 Dentalium pauperculum, Meek, 1864, Cheek List Inv. Fossils, N. A., Cret. 

 and Jur., p. 17. 



Description. — " Shell small, arcuate, slender and tapering gradually ; 

 section circular; substance comparatively thick; surface smooth, but 

 showing under a magnifier extremely fine, obscure lines of growth, which 

 pass around somewhat obliquely. Length (of an incomplete specimen, 

 measuring from the apex) 0.36 in., diameter of same at apex 0.03 in., diam- 

 eter at large extremity 0.06 in. Location and position: Moreau River, 

 Formation No. 5 of the Nebraska section." — Meek and Hayden, 1861. 



Type Locality. — Moreau River, No. 5 of Nebraska section. 



Meek later in 1876 reported the species from the Fort Pierre group as 

 well as from the Fox Hills. 



Fragments of a form which is apparently similar to that described by 

 Meek and Hayden was collected in the Monmouth of Prince George's 

 County. The material is so fragmentary that the determination is merely 

 tentative. However, scaphopods as a group are rather deep water forms 

 and for that reason less restricted in distribution than the shallow water 

 types, so that there would be nothing remarkable in the occurrence of an 

 identical species on the East Coast and in the Western Interior. 



Meek, in his 1876 report, referred the species to Eutalis, but there does 

 not seem to be sufficient evidence for a subgeneric determination in any 

 of the available material. 



Occurrence. — Monmouth Foemation. Brightseat, Prince George's 

 County. 



Collection. — Maryland Geological Survey. 



Outside Distribution. — Pierre. Western Interior. Fox Hills Sand- 

 stone. Western Interior. 



