BRACHIOPODA. 
277 
Genus MEGALANTERIS, Suess. 1855. 
PLATE LXXVII. 
1830. Terebratula, db Vbrne0IL. Bull. See. G^ol.^de France, 2 ser., vol. vii, p. 175, pi. iv, fig-. 2. 
1855. Meganteris, Suess. Ueber Meganteris; Sitzungsber. der Kais. Acad, der Wissensch. zu Wien. 
1856. Mtgantm'is, Suess. Classification der Brachiopoden, von Th. Davidson, p. 43, pi. ii, fig. 18. 
1857. Meganteris, Hale. Tenth Ann. Kept N. Y. State Cab. Nat. Hist., p. 101. 
1859. Bensselceria, Hall. Palgeontology of New York, vol. iii, p. 458, pi. evi, fig. 2a-l. 
1861. RensselcEria, McChesney. Descr. New Fossils from Palseozoic Rocks of West. States, p. 85. 
1867. Rensstlceria, McChesney. Trans. Chicago Acad. Sciences, vol. i, p. 36, pi. vii, figs. 2a.-c. 
1868. Rensselceria, Meek and Woethen. Geological Survey of Illinois, vol. iii, p. 401, pi. viii, figs. 4 a, b. 
1871. Meganteris, Quenstbdt. Petrefactenkunde Deutschlands; Brachiopoden, p. 344, pi. xlvii, 
figs. 21, 22. 
1876. Meganteris, F. Roemer. Lethsea Palaeozoica, pi. xxiii, fig. 6. 
1887. Megalanteris, Q2hlert. Fischer’s Manuel de Conchyliologie, p. 1319. 
1891. Newberria?, Hall. Tenth Rept. N. Y. Slate Geologist, p. 95. 
Though this generic division is of long standing, its value has been regarded 
as somewhat uncertain. Shells agreeing with the type of Megalanteris in 
external form and in the conformation of the interior of the valves are not of 
uncommon occurrence ; but these are so closely allied to Rensselceria in exter¬ 
nal form, that the possession by them of a brachidium widely dissimilar to the 
corresponding apparatus of that genus seems a priori improbable. The ideal¬ 
ized restoration of this structure, given by Suess, has not been confirmed by 
later investigations, but neither has it been disproved; and we are therefore 
justified in assuming its accuracy. The American species, M. ovalis, Hall, is 
not favorably preserved for the retention of those parts. 
To apprehend the author’s conception of this genus, a translation of the 
diagnosis inserted in his edition of Davidson’s “ Classification of the Brachiopoda ” 
is here introduced: 
“ Shell, in the only species hitherto known, large, smooth, equally biconvex, 
of very variable, elongate-hexagonal to transversely oval outline, and with 
punctated shell structure. Beak depressed, with a small opening for the pedicle- 
muscle, reaching to the somewhat incurved umbo of the pedicle-valve and 
limited on both sides by a depressed deltidium. Hinge apparatus strong, 
similar to that of other terebratuloids. Below the beak of the dorsal valve, 
the central part of the hinge-plate is swollen into a callous uncinate process, 
which is subcubical, and on its surface bears two small V-shaped ridges for the 
