70(1 



Report of the State G-eologist. 



exhibits besides, in several plaees, well preserved transverse undulating cross- 

 ribs which are very similar to those of C. gracilis. 



Another objection, which naturally arises in studying these forms, is this: 

 assuming that other ConiilarUp were sessile also, why have not any such 

 bases been found among the thousands of specimens of the species already 

 described? Barrande had more than a thousand specimens of certain 

 species without noticing such basal cups in the young, which are generally 

 stouter and better preserved than any other part of the fossil. 



In almost all described shells of Coiuihu-Up. the apex is broken off, either 

 irregularly or along a septum. The irregularly broken shells, which compose 

 by far the great majority, have undoubtedly lost their proximal parts and are 

 therefore not complete and may be considered out of the discussion. Those 

 closed by a septum are most probably not complete either, for as Dr. A. 

 Ulrich* has pointed out, the empty chamber between the imperforate septa 

 must have been more liable to destruction than the other sediment-tilled part. 

 It may, therefore, have. been lost in most cases, and only that part of the shell 

 beginning at the youngest septum may have been left to us. It remains in the 

 extremely small number of fully preserved shells. Wiman,f on the basis of 

 Holm's paper, estimates their number at less than 5.55 per cent, of all known 

 Conulariie. These few forms again, although tapering down to a very small 

 diameter (the writer does not know of a real "point"'' having been observed), 

 do not exclude the possibility of having been expanded again into a base. It 

 is true that it does not seem very natural to have a large pyramid supported 

 by such a thin stem, but this was, in fact, the case with rather large shells of 

 ('.'//■(/cilis (PI. II, figs. 1, 7). Suppose all Conularim were attached thus, 

 then it would have been just as strange if the pyramids, in becoming covered, 

 had not been broken right over the bases, as it is that not more of the shells, 

 if they were free, should have preserved the apex. It also bears on this ques- 

 tion that several cups, among them one with a diameter of 5 mm., have been 

 found which bear only a very small fragment of the pyramid (PL III. tig. 2)_ 

 and that the specimen represented in Plate I, figure 1, bears a great number 

 sif bases from which the young Con/ularioe are broken off. The preservation 

 of the apex not only forbids any positive conclusion as to the mode of life of 

 the ( '(miliaria , but the supposition of their free existence seems to be question- 

 able and will, therefore, be discussed hereafter. 



As Done of the large specimens of 0. gracilis have been found attached, 

 the question as to mode of life can not be directly answered. It can, however, 



* Paheozofsche Verstciiwrmigen mis Bolivien, p. 35, 18!hJ 



t PateontOlogiBChe Notizen 1 nnd 4, Bull. Qeol. Insi. I'niv. Upsaln, Vol II, No. :i, p. 7, 18!M. 



