VI.—On a Specimen of Waldheimia perforata (Piette), showing Original Colour-markings

Extract

The retention of the original colour-markings amongst fossil Brachiopoda is a somewhat rare occurrence: the following striking instance therefore seems worthy of record.

It is true that Deslongchamps in the Paléontologie Française mentions the colours of a number of Jurassic Brachiopods, but in nearly all these cases the colours are spoken of as if uniformly distributed and not patterned over the shells, and therefore we cannot be sure that they are original and not subsequently produced.

Of British fossil Brachiopods which show the colour-markings, Terebratula hastata and Discina nitida respectively from the Carboniferous Limestone of Longnor, Derbyshire and Hamilton, Scotland, Terebratula intermedia from the Cornbrash of Wollaston, and Terebratula biplicata from the Upper Greensand of Cambridgeshire, are examples.