I.—On the West Indian Tertiary Fossils

Extract

The shell for which I propose the above appellation was considered to be Strombus pugilis by Mr. Carrick Moore. The name was misprinted fragilis in his paper in the Journal of the Geological Society, vol. xix. p. 511. In my papers on the Tertiary fossils of Jamaica and the West Indies, the species was recorded under the name Str. pugilis. In ordinary specimens like those usually found in Jamaica, Haiti, and elsewhere, the only well-marked differences that can be noticed between the fossil shell and the recent Strombus pugilis are that in the former the last whorl is usually devoid of the spiniform tubercles, and that the shell is of shorter and broader figure. But some examples, supplied me by my friend Mr. Vendryes, exhibit an unexpected character. They show chevron-shaped bands of colour, about 12–15 on the last whorl. Each band takes the shape of a V, the apex of which occurs near the middle of the whorl, and forms an angle of about 30° pointing backwards or away from the aperture. These bands of colour are about two mm. wide and the spaces between them are about three mm. Numerous specimens of the recent Str. pugilis have passed through my hands, but I have never noticed the slightest approach to such a character. The recent shell is pale red or pink only relieved by an indistinct band of paler tint following the middle of the whorl. A less constant difference may be found in the low rounded lamellar dentition inside the outer lip which is very faint or altogether wanting in Strombus pugilis, but more marked in the fossil.