Description of some new species of Cuvier's family of Brachiopoda / [William John Broderip].

  • Broderip, William John, 1789-1859
Date:
[1833?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Description of some new species of Cuvier's family of Brachiopoda / [William John Broderip]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The rounded anterior edge of this shell is green, and the transverse lines of that colour are produced by the progressive increase of the shell, which is smooth and parch¬ ment-like. In all the dried specimens the thin anterior edge is contracted into a square form, so as to produce a resemblance to a very square-toed shoe; but in its natural state this edge is rounded. A general contraction, moreover, gives the dried shells a narrower and more ventricose character than they really possess ; and the remains of the cilia of the branchiae give to their anterior edges a bearded appearance. The di¬ mensions above given were taken from the largest specimen which I have seen: the individual dissected by Mr. Owen is comparatively small. Mr. Cuming found this species, which bears the name of the Baron de Ferussac, at about half-tide, in an extensive bottom of hard coarse sand, from four to six inches below its surface. The extent of the sand was about twelve miles long, and two miles wide. 2. Lingula Semen. Tab. XXIII. Fig. 17. Ling, testa ovato-oblonga, crassiuscula, plana, albida, laevissima, polita, limbo anteriore rotundato. Long. poll., lat. . Hab. ad Insulam Platam. Mus. Cuming. This shell, the only one I have seen, was dredged by Mr. Cuming in fine coral sand from a depth of seventeen fathoms. It may be a young individual; but the shell is so much firmer than it usually is in Lingula (so firm, indeed, as not to have contracted at all in drying), that I cannot but look on it as an undescribed species. In size and ap¬ pearance it bears a near resemblance to a melon seed. Mr. Cuming informs me that he found another specimen, about a line longer, at the same time and in the same place, but that he has unfortunately mislaid it. PLATE XXII. Fig. 1. Terebratula Chilensis. 2. Terebratula Uva. PLATE XXIII. Fig. 1. 1# 2. 14. 17. Orbicula Cumingii. Orbicula strigata. Orbicula lamellosa. Lingula Audebardii. Lingula Semen.