I.—Upper Cretaceous Terebelloids from England

Abstract

In April, 1879, William Davies published in the GeologicalMagazine (n.s., Dec. II, Vol. VI. pp. 145–8) a paper on “Some Fish Exuviæ from the Chalk, generally referred to Dercetis elongatus, Ag.; and on a new species of Fossil Annelide, Terebella Lewesiensis”. Herein he discussed certain longitudinal or tubular agglomerations of fish-debris, originally named Murœna(?) Lewesiensis, by G. A. Mantell, but subsequently assigned by L. Agassiz to the fish described by him as Dercetis elongatus. References to the various papers and books in which these remains had been mentioned will be found in the paper quoted. From his profound knowledge of fossil fish Davies was able to show that these agglomerations contained the remains of more than one species of fish, and he considered that the fragments had been collected and affixed to their tubes by annelids allied to the modern Terebella. It is well known that some living species of that genus have similar tube-building habits, so that the suggestion made by Davies has been generally accepted, and the specimens in the British Museum on which he based his conclusions have since then been labelled Terebella(?) Lewesiensis Mantell sp.