144 PAL^OI^TOLOGY OF l^EW JERSEY. 



CYPRINID^. 



Genus YENIELLA StoUczka. 



Veniella Couradi. 

 Plate XIX, Figs. 8-10. 



Venilia Conradi Morton. Synopsis, p. 67, PI. VIII, Figs. 1 and 2. Gabb, Synop., 177. 



Meek, Check-list, p. 13. Geol. Surv. K. J., 1868, p. 727. 

 Veniella Conradi (Mort.) Stoliczka. Pal. Indica, Vol. Ill, p. 190. Meek, Pal. Invert. 



Territ., p. 148. 

 Comp. V. {Goniosoma) inflata Con. Am. Jour. Conch., Vol. Y, p. 44, PI. I, fig. 10. 

 Com. Y. elevata Con. Am. Jour. Conch., Yol. YI, p. 74, PI. Ill, Fig. 7. 



Shell, as found in New Jersey, small to medium size, but as found in 

 Texas and neighboring States often quite large. Rhombic, trapezoidal 

 or subquadrate in outline, very ventricose and sharply angular on the 

 umbonal ridges, with large, prominent,* incurved beaks, situated far interior 

 and quite approximate. Hinge-line more or less curved and strongly 

 bent beneath the beaks ; posterior end truncate, showing a greater or less 

 width in different individuals, often quite angular at the cardinal angle in 

 younger shells, but more or less rounded in older specimens. Basal line 

 gently curved and the anterior end obtusely rounded, longest below the 

 center and largely excavated beneath the beaks, although but slightly 

 projecting beyond them. Surface of the shell marked by strong concentric 

 varices, which in the younger shells are broad concave furrows with sharp 

 ridges, very distant and only three or four in number in medium sized 

 individuals. In the older specimens these often become less marked, and 

 in many of the Southern shells are nearly obsolete. The interior of the 

 shell is seldom seen in the New Jersey marls, where it mostly exists as 

 internal or partially external casts, but from the more Southern localities it 

 is obtained preserving the substance of the shell and showing the hinge - 

 features very distinctly. 



The species is a strongly marked one, and is not easily confounded 

 with but one other shell found in the New Jei/sey beds, namely, Cardita 

 decisa Morton. From this one it may be distinguished by the presence of 

 the surface undulations, the more angular umbonal ridge, more abrupt 

 umbonal slope, and smaller and less enrolled beaks, which are more erect, 



