CLASS SCAPHOPODA 
Family DENTALIIDAE 
Genus DENTALIUM Linnaeus, 1758 
Shell tubular, symmetrical, curved, open at each end, attenuated pos¬ 
teriorly; surface smooth or longitudinally striated; aperture circular, not 
constricted. The tooth-shells are animal-feeders, devouring foraminifera 
and minute bivalves; they are found in sand, or mud, in which they 
usually bury themselves. 
Type. Dentalium elephantinum Linnaeus. 
Distribution. West Indies, Norway, Britain, Mediterranean, India, 
east and west coast of America. Fossil: Devonian .... Europe, Chile, 
North America. 
Dentalium inversum Deshayes, 1825 
Societe d’histoire Naturelle, Paris, Memoires, 2:370; PI. 16, figs. 21, 22. 
D. testa tereti, subarcuata, subulate, angulata, hylina, postice tenuissime 
striata, rubescente, antice lavigata, albida; fissura angustissima, profunda, 
ventrali. (Deshayes.) 
Shell thin, slender, smooth, moderately arched, gradually increased, 
red near the apex, white toward the margin of the aperture; apex attenu¬ 
ated, acuminated, incised with a rather long fissure on the ventral side. 
This species is singular, possessing a slit on the ventral or inner side 
of the curve. (Conchologia I conical 
Length, 30; diameter of aperture, 1.9; of apex, 0.6; length of slit, 
1.8 mm.—of a specimen in the Philadelphia Academy. (Tryon and Pilsbry, 
Manual of Conchology.) 
Type in Museum Paris? Type locality unknown. 
Range. Bering Sea to Panama in increasingly deep water. 
Dentalium neohexagonum Sharp and Pilsbry, 1897 
Tryon and Pilsbry, Manual of Conchology, 17: 19; PI. 11, figs. 74-86. 
Shell decidedly curved toward the apex in the young, only moderately 
arcuate when adult; slender (the length 12-14 times the greatest diameter, 
in adults); much attenuated toward the apex; white. Sculpture of six 
strong, rounded, projecting ribs, which on the larger half or third of the 
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