DEPABTMENT OF THE INTEKIOR

BULLETIN

OF THE

UNITED STATES

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

N~o. 151

WASHINGTON

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

1898

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

CHARLES D. WALCOTT, DIEECTOR

THE

LOWER CRETACEOUS GRYPMAS

OF THK

TEX.AS REGION

ROBERT THOMAS HILL

THOMAS WAYLA'ND VAUGHAN

WASHINGTON

GOVERNMENT FEINTING OFFICE

18.98

THE LOWER CRETACEOUS GRYPHJ1AS OF THE 

TEXAS REGION.

BY

I

EOBEET THOMAS HILL and THOMAS WAYLAND VAUGHAN.

CONTENTS.

Page.

Letter of transmittal....._..........._....._ ............................ 11

Introduction ...---._._....__................._....._.__............._...._ 13

The fossil oysters of the Texas region.._._.._.___._-..-._._......-..--.... 23

Classification of the Ostreidae. .. ...-...---..-.......-.....-.-............ 24

Historical statement of the discovery in the Texas region of the forms

referred to Gryphsea pitcher! Morton ................................ 33

Gryphaea corrugata Say._______._._..__..__...__.,_._.________...____.._ 33

Gryphsea pitcheri Morton............................................... 34

Roemer's Gryphsea pitcheri............................................ 35

Marcou's Gryphsea pitcheri............................................ 35

Blake's Gryphaea pitcheri............................................. 36

Schiel's Gryphsea pitcheri...........................,.:................ 36

Hall's Gryphsea pitcheri (= G. dilatata var. tucumcarii Marcou) ...... 36

Heilprin's Gryphaea pitcheri.....'..................................... 37

Gryphaea pitcheri var. hilli Cragin.................................... 38

Differentiation .............................................._............ 38

Gryphsea washitaensis Hill........................................... 41

Gryphseanewberryi Stanton.......................................... 41

Gryphaea gibberosa Cragin ........................................... 42

Geographic and stratigraphic distribution of the Lower Cretaceous gryphseas 43

Specific classification and evolution of the Lower Cretaceous gryphaeas...- 46

Description of species ...^................................................. 49

Gryphsea wardi, sp. nov....----...--..--...-.--.......... .....'....... 49

Gryphaea marcoui, sp. nov .......................... ........ .......... 50

Gryphsea corrugata Say (gen. nov. ==GK corrugata Hill) ............... 53

Gryphsea navia Hall .................................................. 57

Gryphsea washitaensis Hill........................................... 59

Gryphsea mucronata Gabb............................._....._......... 63

Relationship and evolution of the gryphseas............................... 65

7

ILLUSTRATIONS.

Page. 

PLATE I. Gryphaea wardi, sp. nov ..__...._..__.-.--........._...-. ...... 70

II. Gryphsea marcoui, sp. nov__._._....__----.---......_---.-....--. 72

III. Gryphsea marcoui, sp. nov................................... ... 74

IV. Gryphaea marcoui, sp. nov., adult forms ...._._........-.....-.- 76

V. Gryphsea marcoui, sp. nov., and Gryphaea corrugata Say........ 78

VI. Gryphsea corrugata Say ....................^................... 80

1 VII. Gryphsea corrugata Say, tipper valves--------....--.---_..-.-.. 82

1 VIII. Gryphsea corrugata Say, various. ................................. 84

IX. Gryphsea corrugata var. belviderensis.............--...--.--.-.- 86

X. Gryphsea corrugata Say, var. belviderensis, maximum size....... 88

r, XL Gryphsea corrugata Say, from Kansas, showing variation........ 90

XII, Gryphsea corrugata Say, from Kansas, showing variation ... . 92

XIII. Grypheea corrugata Say, var. tucumcarii, from New Mexico..... 94

XIV. Gryphsea corrugata Say, var. tucumcarii, from New Mexico, maximum size ----_-------.--.--.___.-.-...-----._.--..-------.-.. 96

XV. Copies of Hall's figures of G. corrugata Say, described as G.

pitcheri Morton ........ ...................................... 98

( XVI. Reproduction of Marcou's figures of G. dilatata (Gryphsea corrugata Say) .........._.................-...................... 100

XVII. Reproduction of Marcou's figures of G. navia Hall, G. tucumcarii

Marcou. and Ostrea subovata Shumard............ ........... 102

XVIII. Gryphsea navia Hall............................................. 104

XIX. Gryphsea corrugata Say, and Gryphsea washitaensis Hill........ 106

XX. Gryphaea wushitaensis Hill; lower valves ....................... 108

XXI. Gryphsea washitaensis Hill; old form showing maximum development ...--...-..-.--..........-..--...-..-...-....--...-...-..... 110

XXII. Gryphsea washitaensis Hill; old form showing maximum develop- 

' ment......................................................... 112

/ XXIII. Gryphaea washitaensis Hill and Gryphaea mucronata Gabb...... 114 

XXIV. Gryphsea mucronata Gabb; stages of development........ ...... 116

XXV. Gryphsea mucronata Gabb; normal lower valves................ 118

XXVI. Reproductions of Roemers Gryphsea pitcheri (G. mucronata),

illustrating free specimens, and figures showing attached forms. 120 

1 XXVII. Variation of Gryphsea mucronata; elongate forms .............. 122

" XXVIII. Variation of Gryphaea mucronata Gabb; normal forms.......... 124

XXIX. Variation of Gryphsea mucronata Gabb; triangular forms....... 126

XXX. Variation of Gryphsea mucronata Gabb; attached forms ........ 128

XXXI. A bed of living oysters on Georgia coast........................ 130

XXXII. Columnar section near Denison, Texas, showing stratigraphic

occurrence of fossil Ostreidse................................... 132

XXXIII. Columnar section near Fort Worth, Texas, showing occurrence 

T of fossil Ostreidse............................................. 134

.XXXIV. Columnar section near Weatherford, Texas, showing occurrence 

' of fossil Ostreidse.............................................. 136

XXXV. Columnar sections of Texas region, showingoccurr ence of fossil

Ostreidse ..................................................... 138

FIG. 1. Hinge of lower valve of G. washitaensis, nepionic stage............ 61

2. Diagram showing the probable evolution of the Gryphsea of the 

v Comanche series............................................... 65

9

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.

DEPARTMENT OP THE INTERIOR, 

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY,

Washington, D. C., January IS, 1897.

' SIR: I transmit herewith, for publication, a paper entitled The 

Lower Cretaceous Gryphseas of the Texas Region, which has been 

prepared jointly by Mr. Thomas Wayland Vaughah, assistant geologist, and myself.

Very respectfully,

ROBT. T. HILL,

G-eologist. 

To THE DIRECTOR,

United States Geological Survey.

11

THE LOWER CRETACEOUS GRYPH.EAS OF THE 

TEXAS REGION.

By ROBERT T. HILL and T. WAYLAND VAUGHAN.

INTRODUCTION.

The present paper treats of the specific classification, stratigraphic 

occurrence, and relationships of one particular group of the many 

kinds of fossil oysters occurring in the Lower Cretaceous formations 

of Texas. This group includes those forms which have generally been 

referred to G-ryphcea pitcheri of Morton. Owing to the plentiful 

occurrence of the shells of these oysters in the formations mentioned, 

this group is of great importance from many standpoints, and a thorough knowledge of the forms composing it has the utmost economic 

value because of the assistance which they render in determining 

the stratigraphic position of various beds in the geologic sections. 

In two ^stances within the last year, by the aid of these fossils, 

brought up, from great depths in diamond-drill cores, cities in Texas 

upon the point of abandoning the attempt to procure artesian water 

have been warranted in drilling a few feet farther, where the desired 

artesian flow was procured. Unfortunately, however, this group of 

fossils has not been properly understood or classified, owing to the 

inadequate manner in which they were originally described and published. These descriptions were often based upon single specimens 

or incomplete collections made in the hasty reconnoissances of early 

frontier expeditions and were unaccompanied by stratigraphic data. 

The species from the Texas region have usually been based upon one or 

two poor specimens, accidentally picked up without record of stratigraphic occurrence, and described by a paleontologist unacquainted 

with the stratigraphic relations of the rocks in which they were found. 

Other species have been made from variations of some previously 

described form. The forms have also become involved in a confusion 

of nomenclature and controversy, so that the student can not obtain 

from the literature a proper conception of their occurrence, distribution, and classification.

A controversy between Prof. Jules Marcou on the one hand and 

nearly all the eminent American paleontologists of the day on the

13
14 LOWER CRETACEOUS GRYPH^EAS OF TEXAS REGION. [BULL. 151.

other early arose concerning the species G-ryphc&a pitcheri and the 

formations in which it was found. Upon the finding at Tucumcari 

Mesa, New Mexico, of two fossil oysters which he termed G-ryphc&a 

dilatata var. tucumcarii and Ostrea marshii (Marcou, not Sowerby), 

Professor Marcou announced the existence there of rocks of the Jurassic age. He likewise asserted .the existence of Lower Cretaceous 

strata at Comet Creek, on the head waters of the False Washita, a 

locality in what is now known as Oklahoma, basing this conclusion 

upon the existence of a single species of fossil oyster in strata of lumachelle limestone aggregating only a few feet in .thickness.

Professor Marcou in his many papers has variously described these 

beds and their thickness, and has successively referred this species 

as follows: " Exogyra ponderosa Roemer" (provisionally), "Ostrea 

aquili or couloni (9)," " Exogyra pitcheri" " Grryphcea pitcheri," 

"Q-ryphcza pitcheri var. navia, Hall and Conrad," " Q-ryphczaroemeri," 

" Gryphc&a pitcheri, and Gryphc&a roemeri again. Inasmuch as 

much controversy has taken place concerning the thickness of the 

beds and the nomenclature of the fossil, we append the following 

extracts from his writings, giving the facts in full:

1855. This limestone is only 5 feet thick; it is of a whitish gray color, containing 

an immense quantity of Ostracea, which I consider (provisionally) as the Exogyra 

ponderosa Roemer; having the closest analogy with the Exogyra of the Neocomien of the environs'of Neufchatel. [United States Pacific Railroad Explorations, 

1853-54, Vol. IV, p. 43, H. Doc. .129. Washington, 1855.]

1858. This limestone is only 5 feet thick; it is of a whitish gray color, containing an immense quantity of Ostracea, which I consider as identical with the 

Exogyra (Oryphcea) pitcheri Mort., having the closest analogy with the Exogyra 

couloni of the Neocomian of the environs of Neuchatel (Switzerland). [Geology 

of North America, Zurich, 1858, p. 17. This passage purports to be a verbatim 

copy of the above paragraph and is from the chapter entitled " Extract from 

report of explorations for a railway route, near the thirty-fifth, parallel of latitude, from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean," etc., Washington, 1855, 

H. R. Doc. 129.]

1858. In the literal copy and translation of Prof. Jules Marcou's 

field notes by W. P. Blake, page 131, Volume III, of the Pacific Railway reports, quarto edition of 1856, the Comet Creek locality, near 

camp 31, is described as composed of "three or four broken beds with 

crinoids disseminated here and there as if the ruins were formed of 

a lumachelle limestone of Neocomien age. This lumachelle is formed 

by the fragments of Ostrea aquila or couloni or a variety, for it is 

smaller. the four beds of lumachelle are 2 feet thick." 

Concerning these notes, however, Mr. Marcou later said: "I here 

declare that I know nothing of the publication of the edition in 

quarto of these reports, and that I decline all responsibility as to the 

use that may have been or may hereafter be made by others of my 

official notebooks,',' etc. (Geology of North America, etc., Zurich, 

1858, p. 1.)

1858. On page 27 of the Geology of North America, Mr. Marcou
vATOftS?.] INTRODUCTION. 15

says, in discussing his Neocoinian in America, of which this is the 

only locality recorded as seen by him, that "its thickness varies from 

6 to 50feet."

1862. I have never seen Morton's original specimen. I am led to 

believe that I did not meet with the true G, pitcheri of Morton in my explorations 

with Captain Whipple's party. Mr. Ferdinand Roemer having the opportunity 

of seeing in the company of the late Dr. Morton himself the original specimen at 

Philadelphia, I naturally followed his identification of G. pitcheri; and if Roemer 

has made a mistake I was misled by his description. Thus we shall have 

three species of Gryphaea: 1, the G. tuciimcarii of the Jurassic rocks of Pyramid 

Mount (New Mexico); 2, the false G. pitcheri, of Roemer and Marcou, or the false 

G. pitcheri var. navia of Conrad and Hall, of the Cretaceous rocks of the false 

Washita River (Texas), which may be called G. roemeri in honor of its first discoverer, Mr. F. Roemer; and 3, the true G. pitcheri, Morton, which I have never 

seen, and consequently on which I can not give any information as to its stratigraphical position and association with other fossils. [Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist,, 

Vol. VIII, p. 95, 1862.J

1SS9. As to the Gryphcea pitcheri which Mr. Hall calls var. navia, it is the true 

G.pitcheri of Morton and Roemer, found by me at Comet Creek, near the false 

Washita River. [American Geologist, September, 1889, p. 163.]

1896. The first strata of this Cretaceous system contain at Comet Creek, Fort 

Washita, etc., an immense number of Gryphcea Roemeri Marcou (formerly called 

G. Pitcheri by Roemer and Marcou). The Gryphcea are so numerous as to recall 

the "Limestone of the Gryphcea arcuata Lias of England, France, and Germany." 

These first beds, which may be called " Caprina°and Gryphaea Roemeri limestone," 

are the bottom beds of the American Neocomian or Lower Cretaceous. [The Jura 

of Texas, by Jules Marcou, Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. 27, p. 157, Boston, 

October, 1896.)

Prof. James Hall and Dr. B. F. Shumard, supported by Prof. James 

D. Dana, were the chief opponents of Professor Marcou's views. 

They correctly alleged that the species variously termed by him G. tucumcari, G. dilatata, etc., were identical with Morton's G-. pitcheri, 

and correlated the Tucumcari beds with the Cretaceous instead of the 

Jurassic, to which age Professor Marcou referred them. This controversy, 1 carried on without knowledge of the stratigraphy, and primarily based upon the identity or nonidentity of Marcou's G. tucwmcari with G, pitcheri, established the custom of referring nearly all 

the known gryphseas of the Southwest to the little-understood 

G. pitcheri of Morton. A cloud was also cast upon the value of the 

descriptions and figures of Cretaceous fossils which had been sent to 

Professor Marcou from Fort Washita, Indian Territory, and Texas 

by Captain Pope and Dr. G. G. Shumard, and described and figured 

by him in his Geology of North America. With the exception of 

Roemer's, those were the best illustrated figures of fossils from the 

Texas region, but unfortunately their exact stratigraphic position 

was unknown at that time. His now well-known species Exogyra 

sinuata var. americana, for instance, was strongly asserted to be iden1 The substance of this controversy may be found in J. D. Dana's " Review of Marcou's 

Geology of North America," in the American Journal of-Science, November, 1858, pp. 323-333; 

and in the same journal for January, 1859, pp. 137-141.
16 LOWER CRETACEOUS GRYPH.EAS OF TEXAS REGION. [BOLL. 151.

tical with Exogyra ponderosa Roemer, 1 and whatever of worth there 

may have been in his work was largely overlooked in the criticism 

of its errors, and confused by his own subsequent controversial 

discussions.

Of all who participated in the discussion, Professor Marcou and Dr. 

B. F. Shumard were the only ones who had seen or collected the fossils in situ; and neither of these had seen or understood the stratigraphic relations of the Cretaceous section in its entirety as it is now 

known. Dr. Shumard seems to have overlooked any varietal differences in the gryphEeas. Professor Marcou later admitted * that the 

form which he called Gr. pitcheri might not be that species at all, and 

insisted that his Gr. dilatata var. tucumcarii was different from it. 

The others insisted that the form Gr. dilatata var. tucumcari, which 

Professor Marcou stoutly maintained was distinct, was the true 

Gr. pitcheri.

Professor Marcou, unfortunately, has never seen the Cretaceous 

formation in Texas or the main area of its occurrence in Indian Territory as at present constituted, his itinerary having taken him 

entirely to the north of the Ouachita range, 3 which separates the fragmentary, disconnected, and attenuated outlying areas of Kansas and 

Oklahoma from the true Texas region and its extension into the 

Chickasaw and Choctaw Natifcns. The "2," "4," or " 5" feet of the 

Lower Cretaceous limestone which he saw at Comet Creek, Oklahoma, 

and the few feet of Cretaceous near Tucumcari, New Mexico, represent merely a horizon in a single one of the three divisions of the 

series. (See PI. XXXIV.) His entire observation of the beds of both 

localities was not of a half day's duration.

Dr. Shumard's erroneous section 4 of the Texas Cretaceous completely 

obscured for the time being the sequence of the Cretaceous formations. Professor Marcou protested 5 upon theoretical grounds against 

the correctness of this section, but his objections carried little weight 

owing to the bitterness of the controversy in which he had become 

involved.

These misconceptions concerning the Cretaceous formations arose 

in the earlier days of American geology, before the Arkansas-Texas 

region had been explored. It was the general opinion at that time 

that there were no marine strata in the United States comparable to

i Am. Jgur. Sci., 2d series, Vol. XXVI, 1858, p. 331.

3 See extract from his writings, paragraph on p. 15 of this paper.

3 At several .times Professor Marcou in his writings has conveyed the impression that he had 

seen the Cretaceous at Fort Washita, Indian, Territory, and in Texas. (See American Geologist, Aug., 1894, p. 100.) The various journals, itineraries, and maps of the Pacific Railway 

expedition, as published by himself and others, giving a minute record of the progress of the 

party day by day, show, that it nowhere encountered these localities or any other south of the 

Ouachita Mountains. , The fossils described by him in his Geology of North America and elsewhere, from Fort Washita, were collected and sent to him by Dr. G. G. Shumard, and those 

from the Cross Timbers of Texas by Captain Pope, of the Thirty-second Parallel Survey.

«Trans. Acad. Sci. St. Louis, Vol. I, 1860, p. 583.

6 Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., Vol. VIII, 1862, p. 93.
HILL AND " 

VAUGHAN.. INTRODUCTION.

the Lower Cretaceous strata of Europe, and that the Cretaceous formations of our country were conspicuously devoid of chalky deposits, 

and hence were exceptional by the absence of what is their most characteristic litho-paleontologic feature in other parts of the world and 

the one from which the name of the group is derived. These opinions 

were the logical result of what was then known of the American Cretaceous formations. Knowledge of this group was at first mostly confined to the strata of New Jersey, which, although devoid of any chalky 

material, are, as shown by their fossils, homotaxially equivalent to the 

Upper Chalks of Europe. The New Jersey deposits were also supposed to represent, stratigraphically and faunally, all of the American 

Cretaceous section, when in fact, as we now know, they are only the 

uppermost beds of the upper division of the American Cretaceous, 

and in no manner indicate the great development of the lower beds 

of the Southwestern States.

The Arkansas-Texas section shows the presence in America, as well 

as in Europe, of a most perfect sequence of Cretaceous deposits, from 

the Wealden (Trinity) beds to the equivalents of the Senonian, which 

embraces all Cretaceous time.

In the year 1886 it was shown l that current misconceptions of the 

Texas Cretaceous and its fossil species were largely due to the fact 

that underlying the hitherto supposed base of the beds of that period 

there was another lower and entirely distinct series of rocks, to which 

the name Comanche series was soon given, and that its fossils, collected at various times, had all been erroneously confused with the 

overlying Meek and Hay den section, which hitherto had been supposed to embrace the entire range of the North American Cretaceous. 

As a natural result of these misconceptions the stratigraphic occurrence of the Cretaceous Ostreidre in general, although they are the 

best preserved and the most abundant of our fossils, was but little 

understood and has not been properly presented.

One of the first results of the separation of the Comanche series 

from the Upper Cretaceous was the discovery of the fact that the 

numerous forms of fossil Ostreidfe, then known by the name of 

Gryphce-a pitcheri, Q-. dilatata var. tucumcarii, etc., were characteristic of and restricted in occurrence to this Lower Cretaceous series.

Mr. Stanton's 2 recent studies of Newberry and Schiel's Grryphcza 

pitcheri from the Upper Cretaceous of New Mexico and Utah show it 

to be a distinct species (Q-. newberryi Stanton) and removes the last 

vestige of G. pitcheri from the Upper Cretaceous.

The writers have visited every one of the historic type localities 

from which these forms were originally described and have studied

1 The paper, with printed sections, was presented before the Philosophical Society of Washington in December. 1886, and published in the Am. Jour. Sci., 3d series, Vol. XXXIII, 1887, pp. 

298-299.

2 Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey No. 106,1893, pp. 60-62.

Bull. 151 2
18 LOWER CRETACEOUS GRYPH^EAS OF TEXAS REGION. [BULL. 151.

minutely their stratigraphic occurrence, range, and association. Collections have been made, not of a few adults only, such as have 

usually been figured, but of specimens in every stage of growth and 

variation.

In the paper and section previously mentioned three distinct horizons of the several forms of so-called G-ryphcea pitcheri were pointed 

out, one below the Comanche Peak fauna, associated with Exogyra 

texana, another at the base of the Washita division, above the " Hippurites" or Caprina (Edwards 1 ) limestone, consisting of Dr. C. A. 

White's E. forniculata (Cr. navia, Hall); and another in the Washita 

division associated with Ostrea carinata. Still later it was discovered 

that another variety, Roemer's Gr. pitcheri, occurred only at the top 

of the Del Rio (Exogyra arietina) clays in a very persistent zone.

As studies of the Comanche series progressed, another important 

fact became apparent. The forms called Gryphcaa pitcheri by Morton, Roerner, Marcou, and others each came from a different stratigraphic position in the Comanche series, and might or might not be 

distinct species, or varieties of the same species, which upon close 

study of abundant material could be defined so as to be of stratigraphic value.

At this time (1886) opinions of what constituted G. pitcheri Morton 

were formed largely from the accepted literature, and it was believed, 

with Roemer, White, and others, that the former's figures represented 

the type of the true G, pitcheri. As now shoAvn in this work, this 

was an erroneous opinion, which has caused much trouble. Studies 

of the uppermost Comanche beds in the littoral regions of Denison, 

Texas; Tucumcari, New Mexico; and southern Kansas, which have 

since been published, had not been completed at that date. Later 

the senior author made special trips to Tucumcari mesa, where only

a small portion of the entire Comanche series is revealed, in order to

ascertain the facts as to Professor Marcou's locality. Qryphc&a 

tucumcarii was found in abundance, and he was strongly impressed 

with the fact that this was a distinct species; but upon this trip its 

accompanying fauna of Washita fossils was not discovered, and he 

supposed that Marcou had ground for assigning these beds to the 

Jurassic, and for a short time was inclined to support Marcou's 

position. 2 Later, in 1889, he made a detailed study of the peculiar 

Denison (Texas) section, 3 which, as has been recently shown, has 

marked variation from the Comanche series in central Texas', and saw 

in them paleontologic evidence which led to -the belief that the 

Tucumcari beds were equivalent in part thereto. On a second visit 

to Tucumcari an abundant fauna was found accompanying Gr. tucum1 G-eographic designations will hereafter be used for the various terranes of the Cretaceous 

group in Texas, instead of paleontologic denominations, in accordance with a system adopted 

by the Survey.

2 Rept. GeoL Survey Arkansas for 1888, Vol. II, 1888, pp. 172-173. 

» See Bull, Geol. Soc. America, Vol. V, 1894, pp. 297-338.
vADOHli?.] INTRODUCTION. 19

carii identical in species with those of the Denison beds of the top 

of the Comanche series, thereby fixing the stratigraphic position of 

Marcou's Tucumcari species. 1

This extensive collection from Tucumcari, and those made by 

Hyatt, and later by the collectors of the Texas survey, all show that 

the variety tucumcarii of Marcou occurs in association with a characteristic and unmista.kable fauna 2 of the Washita division (the uppermost division of the Comanche series), the same to which belongs his 

(Marcou's) G. pitclieri beds of Comet Creek, 3 Oklahoma, which he 

called Cretaceous. Furthermore, Cr. corrugata Say, of which Marcou's Cr. tucumcarii is but a variety, was later found in abundance in 

the Red River'region of Texas and Indian Territory, southern Kansas, and Oklahoma, in association with an undoubted Washita fauna, 

including the species Ammonites sliumardi, Marcou, described by 

him as a Cretaceous species, and which Professor Hyatt found in the 

Tucumcari beds. The exact horizon of this ammonite in Texas is at 

the top of the Kiarnitia beds, which are principally composed of Marcou's Comet Creek Cretaceous G. piicheri (G. navia, Hall), and are 

far above the base of the other fossiliferous beds of the Comanche 

Cretaceous.

Furthermore, while the two species of Gryphsea described by Professor Marcou from Comet Creek, Oklahoma, and Tucumcari, New 

Mexico, respectively (the former as Cretaceous and the latter as 

Jurassic), are both now known to occur in the Washita division of the 

Lower Cretaceous series, there is much stratigraphic evidence indicating that the alleged "Jurassic" form occupies a horizon slightly 

higher than that of the other species, which he called Cretaceous, 

although two forms are sometimes associated together. 4 The latter, in 

the main area of the Cretaceous where the section is complete, has a 

unique and persistent hemera in the Kiamitia beds at the base of the 

Washita division.1 The varieties of G: corrugata Say, called by 

Marcou G. tucumcarii, etc., found in the Tucumcari beds of New 

Mexico and in the outlying areas of the Comanche series in Oklahoma 

and southern Kansas, are associated with a molluscan fauna which 

belongs higher up in the Washita division. 5

Reviewing the criticisms of Professor Marcou's work and species 

in the light of years of later observation, it is but justice to say that 

mistakes were made by both sides engaging in the discussion. Professor Marcou's.assignment of the Tucumcari beds to the Jurassic 

was erroneous, and his antagonists' assignments of them to the Cre1 Science, July 17,1893. Also Am. Jour. Sci., 3d series, Vol. L, 1895, pp. 229-233.

2 See outlying areas of the Comanche series: Am. Jour. Sci., 3d series, Vol. L, 1895, pp. 229-233.

9 In November, 1896, Mr. Vaughan visited the region west of Arapaho, " G " County, Oklahoma, 

and endeavored to locate Professor Marcqu's Comet Creek locality. The name Comet Creek is 

unknown to the present inhabitants, but beds were found which clearly conform to Professor 

Marcou's description. See Am. Jour. Sci., July, 1897, pp. 43-50.

4 See Am. Jour. Sci., Sept., 1895, pp. 205-234, and July, 1897, p. 50.

5 See Am. Jour. Sci., Sept., 1895, pp. 205-234.
20 LOWER CRETACEOUS GRYPH^EAS OF TEXAS REGION. [BULL. 151.

taceous were correct, but erroneous in referring to the Upper or Meek 

and Hay den section of the Cretaceous. They are now known to be 

Lower Cretaceous, lying just midway between the horizons fixed by *. 

the parties to the controversy.

Professor Marcou's opponents correlated all of what is at present 

known as the Lower Cretaceous (Comanche series) with the Upper 

Cretaceous, and mixed the fossils from widely separated formations, 

now known never to occur together, such as Gryphc&a pitcheri (of 

the Washita division) with Ammonites texanus (of the Mobrara), and 

Inoceramus problematicus (of the Benton) with Holectypus planatus 

(of the Fort Worth). 1 These were mistakes similar to those which 

Professor Marcou was supposed to have made.

The age of the Tucumcari beds has been determined to be Cretaceous in the light of more careful investigations made since Professor 

Marcou's hasty visit, upon the following evidence:

1. Professor Marcou, whose expedition permitted only a hasty 

examination, found but two species in the Tucumcari beds, and both 

of these were fossil oysters. More detailed recent investigations have 

shown, in addition to these, a large molluscan fauna of many species 

having greater value for correlation purposes. ' i,

2. The position of this fauna, from a fragmentary outlier of the 

Cretaceous, when compared with the complete section of the main ''* {< 

body of the Cretaceous in Texas, has been shown to be that of the 

uppermost beds of the Lower Cretaceous of the Texas region. It has 

also been shown that,-while. Professor Marcou's Tucumcari fossils 

belong to the same stratigraphic division of the Cretaceous as do those 

of his Comet Creek beds, which he himself has termeft Cretaceous^ 

they come from a slightly higher horizon.

3. The Tucumcari fauna has been studied minutely by those paleontologists who are most familiar with the American Cretaceous

formations and has been pronounced by them to be undoubtedly 

Cretaceous. 

4. The Tucumcari beds contain fossils which Professor Marcou 

himself has described as Cretaceous species in other localities.

5. The Tucumcari. fauna has been carefully collected and studied 

by Prof. Alpheus Hyatt, who is the chief American student of Jurassic invertebrate paleontology, and compared by him with known 

Jurassic species of other localities in this country and in Europe, and 

his verdict, as given in the following extract from one of his unpublished manuscripts in our possession on the age of the Tucumcari 

beds, is that he does not find a single Jurassic species in it:

The following notes on the species found in the Tucumcari series of San Miguel ^j 

County, N. Mex.. are very imperfect. They are for the most part comparisons 

between the fossils found at Tucumcari and elsewhere with European Upper

1 See observations on the Cretaceous strata of the United States with reference to the relative 

position of fossils collected by the Boundary Commission, by James Hall: Am. Jour, Sci., 3d i 

series, Vol. XXIV, 1857, pp. 72-86.
INTRODUCTION. 21

Jurassic forms. My comparisons did not extend into the Cretaceous except in the 

case of the Trigonia, Ostrea, and Ammonites, which did not appear to have any 

close affinities in the Jura. If the work had not been interrupted by Congressional 

action in 1892, the comparisons would have been extended into the Cretaceous and 

also to those said to be the same by American authors. As the matter now stands', 

I have no opinion with regard to the age of these rocks further than what is 

expressed in this negative fact and in the positive results attained by the examinations of Schloeiibaclda shumardi and Gryphcea tucumcarii, both of which have 

the characteristics of Cretacic types.

It will be seen that I did not succeed in finding identical species in the European 

Jura. When the ostreas were being studied I found great confusion, and not 

having ample American materials, I determined to revise the whole group, and 

have added in Appendix A descriptions of the principal European arid American 

species of the Jura and vesicularis of the Cretaceous. The object in point in this 

research was the finding of some characteristic which could be used to distinguish 

Cretacic from Jurassic species. This finally appeared in the peculiar crenulations 

on either side of the hinge line. These crenulations made by the border of the 

mantle have not yet been found, so far as I know, in any Jurassic species.' The

collections of this group are large in the Museiim of Comparative Zoology, and 

both these and approximately all published figures by different authors were carefully examined. Gryphcea tucumcarii has'these crenulations in common with all 

other American and European Cretacic species. . . . ...

Having been requested to make an examination of the species of Ammonitidae 

found at Tticumcari arid compare it with Ammonites shumardi Marcou, I did this 

work carefully, and arrived at the conclusion that the two were identical. The 

young of shumardi have bifurcated costse with huge tubercles on the umbilical 

shoulders and another row of smaller ones on the geniculse. In well-preserved 

fossils ail inner line of tubercles begins to make its appearance in some specimens, 

and these may possibly be distinct from some others in which they appear later in 

the life of the shell. The bifurcated costse alternate with single costa? that do not 

usually reach internally to the umbilical shoulders, and these single cost® have 

only the outer row or rows of tubercles. The alternation of the costse may be 

regular or irregular, but is evidently characteristic, being found in all well-preserved specimens from New Mexico and Texas that I have seen, arid also appearing 

in Professor Marcou's figures of this species in his Geology of North America. In 

the next stage, the adult, which is reached in Marcou's specimen, according to his 

figure, only on the last quarter of the outer .volution, the bifurcated costse separate gradually into single costations. This separation, which makes an additional 

number of single costse at this stage of growth, becomes quite perfect in some 

large specimens.

The keel is well preserved on casts, but is narrow, very prominent, and smooth, 

the outline of the exterior being entire and not crenulated or influenced in any 

way by the costse. These last pass well up on the venter, and are very tumid 

and broad, and are either straight or very slightly bent, but invariably disappear 

at the base of the keel.

The old whorl of shumardi is not unlike Ammonites leonensis of Conrad; 1 and 

might be mistaken for it if.a fragment of the cast of a senile volution were 

found which was not very well preserved and had lost the second row of tubercles, but in well-preserved specimens they are apparently easily separated. There 

are no species in the Jura, so far as I know, that approximate to Ammonites' 

shumardi. It belongs to the well-characterized Creta6ic division of the genus 

Schloenbachia, usually called the Inflatus group.

1 Description of Cretaceous and Tertiary fossils: U. S. and Mex. Boundary Survey; Vol. 1, 

Part II, p.]«0,Pl.XVI, fig.2a.
22 LOWER CRETACEOUS GRYPH.EAS OF TEXAS REGION. [BULL. 151.

The misunderstandings that have surrounded the species have been 

augmented by misfortunes in the preservation of the original type 

specimens upon which it was founded. The types of Say's description are lost, although they niay yet be rediscovered in the Philadelphia collections. That of Morton's was originally deposited in the 

collections of the Academy of Natural Science at Philadelphia, but 

was misplaced or lost, so that until the present day it has been inaccessible to all, with two exceptions, of those who have contributed to 

the literature concerning it. At the date of this publication it is in 

the collections of the University of Texas, Austin, Texas.

The first confusion arising from the inadequate preservation of this 

type specimen is seen in the writings of Dr. Ferdinand Roemer. In 

the year 1847 he visited Philadelphia to see the types of Morton's 

original species, in order to compare them with some forms he himself 

had found near New Braunfels and other points in Texas. Concerning these types he wrote: 1

1 would never have recognized from Morton's insufficient figure, which represents a small form or a young specimen*, that the large canoe-shaped, arched specimens from Texas belong to this species, if I had not seen in the Museum of the 

"Academy of Natural Sciences" in Philadelphia specimens determined by Morton himself which agree completely with those from Texas. Morton furthermore 

remarks - in the description of the species that he possessed specimens almost 3 

inches in length.

Thus, by the erroneous impression given to Dr. Roemer, through 

the careless preservation of original type specimens, the first confusion of Morton's Gr. pitclieri with the other species of Gryphsea was 

started and the nucleus was created for an almost endless misrepresentation and confusion of forms, Avhich has so permeated all the 

literature of the country that the task of correcting it has at times 

seemed almost impossible. Mr. W. M. Gabb, who was at one time 

Curator Of the Philadelphia collections, later clearly showed the 

lamentable confusion of these types and how in later years the original was rescued from, oblivion. Concerning them he said : 3

One of the principal reasons for this is the fact that Dr. Morton described the 

species from a very small specimen and gave, in his "Synopsis " but a single figure, 

which was not over characteristic. Dr. Roemer, after studying the fossils of 

Texas, visited the museum of the Philadelphia Academy to study Morton's types, 

but did not succeed in finding the original specimen of this species, it having been 

carelessly thrown aside in a drawer full of duplicates and worthless fragments, 

from which I had the good fortune to disinter it in 1860 or 1861, after years of 

concealment. Failing to obtain more reliable information than that furnished by 

Morton's short description and only passable figure, Dr. Roemer applied the name 

to a form very common in Texas, but which, as will be seen below, I believe to be 

distinct from the true pitcheri.

1 Kreidebildungen von.Texas, pp. 73-74; also noted in ''Texas, init besonderer Rucksicht,"ete., 

p. 395, Bonn, 1849.

2 Op. cit., p. 85.

3 Palaeontology of California, Vol. II, p. 272.
V'AUOHAN.] FOSSIL OYSTERS OF. TEXAS REGION. 23

Professor Marcou has also noted that he has never seen the types 

of Morton's species, 1 and that his determination was based upon 

Dr. Roeiner's figures.

In 1887 the senior author visited the Philadelphia Academy upon 

the same mission, and was shown a few specimens in a tray, including 

the form described by Dr. Roemer, mixed with others, but found 

nothing resembling Morton's figure, and departed with the same 

impression previously made on Roemer. Professor Heilprin, the 

curator, Avas absent during this visit, bufc a few days later a letter was 

received from his assistant stating that Morton's types had not been 

seen.

On the 21st day of July, 1894, the senior author once more visited 

the Philadelphia collections in order to see Morton's type of G-. pitcheri, 

but was informed that it had been loaned to persons in Texas, More 

than a year later it was ascertained that Prof. F. W. Sinionds, of the

University of Texas, had been permitted to make some plaster casts 

thereof. Through his kindness we procured one of these casts, showing in exquisite perfection every detail of the original specimen, and 

thus for the first time an opportunity was obtained to form a correct 

conclusion as to its nature, and to present from these casts good and 

intelligible figures of the original Q-. pitcheri Morton. These figures 

are given in Plate VI, figs. 5 and 6, of this paper.

THE FOSSIL OYSTERS OF THE TEXAS REGION.

While this paper is devoted to the particular group of forms Avhich 

have been referred to G-ryphcea pitcheri Morton, it is necessary, before 

proceeding further, to make a few general remarks upon the fossil 

Ostreidse of the Texas region.

The quantity and perfect preservation of the shells of fossil oysters 

in the Cretaceous formations of Texas excite the interest and curiosity 

of all who have visited that region. In places these shells weather 

out of the chalk or marly clay, representing the ancient sea sediments 

in which they were originally embedded, and lie strewn upon the surface in such great numbers that they are sometimes used for road 

material or collected and burned into lime. At other places extensive 

masses of indurated strata, the outcrop of which can be traced for 

many miles, are composed entirely of them. The pebble of every 

stream bed is made up largely of them, and they are even found as 

redeposits in later formations.

Catlin, the painter of Indian portraits, thus describes "a ridge of 

fossil shells " near old Fort Washita, Indian Territory, which is composed of one of the species commonly called Crryphcea pitcheri :

One of the most curious places we met in all our route was a mountain ridge 

of fossil shells, from which a great number of the above-mentioned specimens 

were taken. During our second day's march from the mouth of the False Washita

' Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. His., Vol. VIII, 1852, p. 95.
24 LOWER CRETACEOUS GRYPH^IAS OF TEXAS REGION. fsuLL.l5l.

we were astonished to find ourselves traveling over a bed of clam and oyster shells, 

which were all in a complete state of petrification. This ridge, which seemed to run 

from the northeast to southwest, was several hundred [?J feet high, and, varying 

from a quarter to half a mile in breadth, seemed to be composed of nothing but a 

concretion of shells, which, on the surface exposed to the weather for the depth of 

8 or 10 inches, were entirely separated from the cementing material which had 

held them together, and were lying on the surface, sometimes for acres together, 

without a particle of soil or grass upon them, with the color, shapes, and appearance exactly of the natural shells lying loosely .together, into which our horses' 

feet were sinking at every step above their fetlocks. These I consider the most 

extraordinary petrifactions I ever beheld. In any way they could be seen, individually or in a mass together, they seemed to be nothing but the pure shells 

themselves, both in color and in shape. ...... This remarkable ridge is

in some parts covered with grass, but generally with mere scattering bunches for 

miles together, partially covering this compact mass of shells, forming, in my 

opinion, one of the greatest geological curiosities now. to be seen in this country, 

as it lies evidently some thousands of feet above the level of the ocean and 700 'or 

800 miles from the nearest point on the seacoast.'

The fossil oysters of the Texas region belong to many genera and 

species, embracing a great variety of size and form, from the minute 

Exogyra arielina, less than an inch in length, to the gigantic Exogyra 

ponderosa, individual shells of which weigh 5 pounds or more. The}* 

are found at various horizons throughout the 4,000 or more feet of 

rocks constituting the thickness of the Cretaceous strata of central 

Texas.

CLASSIFICATION OF THE OSTKEIDJE.

In undertaking the study of the Ostreidse, one is soon confronted 

with the question, What constitutes species and genera in this group? 

The variation of species is much greater in the Ostreidse than in other 

rnolluscan genera. No other group presents such unsatisfactory 

criteria for specific differentiation. These forms, judging from their 

stratigraphic occurrence as well as their habits, seeni to adopt new

variations of shape with every change in physical condition of habitat, 

as is illustrated in the variations of our living species. Changes similar to those occurring at the present time have occurred in the past, 

and no doubt many species have arisen by some of these local varia- 

.tions becoming fixed and persistent. Large suites of specimens often 

show that two species usually considered very distinct may grade into 

each other. The intergradations are of such a kind that frequently it 

can easily be shown that the two species have been derived from a 

common ancestor; in other cases one species is evidently derived from 

another occurring stratigraphically below it.

In the genus Ostrea proper it is a well-known fact that certain shapes 

recur in widely separated geologic horizons and are apparently missing 

in the intervening strata. Thus some of the normal ostreas of the 

Trinity and .other beds of the Cretaceous and of the Eocene bear so

l From the Catlin Indian Gallery in the United States National Museum, by Thomas Donaldson: Smithsonian Report, 1886, p. 490. .
VAUGHAN.] CLASSIFICATION OF OSTREID^. 25

great a resemblance in shape to forms of the living 0. virginiana that 

one can only with great difficulty describe their difference, yet if a 

full suite of each species should be collected its ensemble would have 

an individuality that would be unmistakable.

Nearly all of the species of fossil oysters have been founded upon 

adult forms, without knowledge of the life history of the individual, 

so ably worked out in some cases by Ryder and Jackson. It is regrettable that full suites of .specimens representing all the species hitherto 

described have not been studied after these modern methods, and in 

in this paper the endeavor will be made to point out the morphologic 

development of the particular species chosen for discussion.

Accepted authorities have stated that variation is so great in fossil 

oysters as to make specific differentiation difficult, thereb}T rendering 

them of little value as stratigraphic criteria. The observations of the 

writers of this paper have led to quite the opposite conclusion, namely,

that certain forms of the Ostreidse possess very distinct specific characters, have definite geologic horizons, and are of the greatest value 

in stratigraphic work.

While some species of the genus Ostrea proper may be of little 

value in stratigraphic determination, species of other* genera appear 

and disappear in relation to the sequence or beds with great certainty. 

' For instance, in the Texas region there are no more positive or persistent criteria of exact stratigraphic position than such forms as E. 

arietina, 0. lugubris, 0. guadriplicata, 0. carinata, and 0. diluviaria, 

while other forms, such as E. costata and G-. vesicularis have their 

hemerse coincident with certain divisions or .groups of beds. No 

other fossil mollusks are so numerous or so favorably preserved for 

study. Some have considerable vertical range and variation, while 

others, like Exogyra arietina Roemer, appear by millions in a single 

definite stratigraphic horizon only. The stratigraphic occurrence of 

all the species, so far as known, is shown on PL XXXIV.

The majority of paleontologists are agreed that four broad divisions 

of the Ostreidse may be recognized, to wit: Ostrea, Alectryonia, Exogyra, and Gryphsea. A considerable number of other generic or 

subgeneric names have been proposed, as Amphidonta, Liogryphsea, 

Pycnodonta, and Gryphseostrea. Bayle has gone further than any 

other student of these forms and has used 1 the names Actinostreon., 

Ceratostreon, Rhyncostreon, and Aetostreon, for specimens figured, 

but has never published any descriptions.

In our opinion no one of the proposed classifications is entirely satisfactory. Probably, none can be proposed until the whole group, both 

the fossil and the recent Ostreidse, has been, the subject of thorough 

investigation from a phylogenetic and morphologic standpoint, according to the lines of research followed out by Hyatt in the cephalopods, 

Jackson in the pelecypods, Beecher and Schuchert in the brachiopods,

1 Carte geologique de la France, IV, Atlas, 1878.
26 LOWER CRETACEOUS GRYPH.EAS OF TEXAS REGION. [BULL. 151.

and Yon Koch in the stony corals. It is very evident that some of 

the groups are in no se^nse natural Alectryonia, for instance, in 

which are forms that have entirely different phylogenetic histories. \ 

Some forms, such as the Ostrea quadriplicata of Shumard and the 0. 

crenulimargo of Roemer, will not adapt themselves to any of the proposed classifications.

While not proposing new generic terms of classification in the list 

of Texas species herewith given, the various forms may be provision- <- 

ally classified into certain groups, as follows:

Genus OSTREA Linnaeus, 1758.

a. Ostrea s. s. Type, 0. edulis Linne. Represented by the ordinary recent oysters. . ]

6. Alectryonia, 1807. Type, 0. crista-galli, Linn. The type has 

both valves radiately plicate and sends out from the lower valves pro- . + 

cesses that aid in its attachment. The generic names Lopha of 

Bolten, Deudrostrea of Swainson, and Actinostreon of Bayle are 

synonyms of Alectryouia. The radiately plicate forms have the plications in som^e species confined to the lower valve; in others, both 

valves are plicate.

6. 1. The above-described types grade into the forms represented 

by Alectryonia carinata Lam., A. larva Goldfuss, A. frons Parkinson, etc., in which the plication diverges from a medium carina.

I). 2. Quadriplicate forms. Plicated forms tending toward extreme 

unilateral expansion, producing a lateral elongation at right angles to 

the antero-postero axis of the shell, contrary to the general rule, 

whereby most of the oysters have their greatest length parallel to this 

axis. Example, Ostrea quadriplicata Shumard.

Genus EXOGYRA Say, 1820.

a. Exogyra s. s. Type, E. costata Say. Obese or craniate forms, 

in which the valves are rounded and are excessively thick in the 

region near the beak, which often has a tendency to coil perpendicularly to the shell and free from it. Examples: E. costata Say, E. ^ 

ponderosa Roemer, E. Iceviuscula Roemer, E. arietina -Roemer; and / 

probably E. plexa Cragin should be included in the same category.

5. Ceratostreon Bayle, 1878. Types, E. flabellata and E. matheroni. 

Auriculate or flattened forms, in which the upper valves have very 

flat or concave surfaces; usually there is a rather sharp angle or 

cariua near the convex margin of the shell; the umbones are relatively small, compressed, flattened against the shell and attached 

thereto. Example, E. texana Roemer and its various varieties, E. 

americcuna Marcou. 1

1 E. sinuatu var. umericana Marcou.
HILL AND 

VAUOHAN,'] CLASSIFICATION OF OSTREID^. 27

Bayle has used two other names: Rhyncostreon, to include those 

forms like E. columba Lam.; and Aetostreon for those like 0. latissima; Lam. and 0. couloni Defrance. No forms belonging to the 

Aetostreon division have been found in Texas.

Genus GRYPHJEA Lamarck, 1801.

a. Paul Fischer defines Gryphsea s. s. as follows: "Bord des valves 

ondule; surf ace plissee plus ou moins." 1 Lamarck described the genus 

Gryphsea in his Histoire Naturelle des Animaux sans Vertebres (2d 

ed.), Vol. VII, 1836 (original date 1801), p. 201, as follows: "Coquille 

libre, ine" quivalve; la valve inferieure grande, courbee, concave, 

terminee par un crochet saillant, courbe en spi rale in volute; la valve 

snperieure petite plane et operculiforme.

"Charniere sans dents; une fossette cardinale; oblongue, arquee. 

Une seuie impression musculaire sur chaque valve,

"Animal inconnu."

He mentions as examples on succeeding pages G. angulata, G. 

cymbium, G. arcuata, Q-. secunda, G. lituola, G. latissima, G. plicata, 

etc., thirty-four in all. There are included in the list both what we 

now understand by Gryphsea and by Exogyra. The first species 

mentioned, G. angulata, after an examination of specimens in the 

United States National Museum, appears to the authors to be a radiately plicate true oyster. Lamarck specified no species as a type. 

De Blainville, in his Manual de Conchyliologie, Strasbourg, 1825, page 

522, appears to be the first to fix the type. His description is as 

follows:

Animal entiereinent inconuu.

Coquille plus finement lamelleuse que celles des huitres, libre ou peu adherente 

subequilaterale tres-inequivalve; la valve inferieure tres-concave, a sommet plus 

ou moins recourbe en crochet; la superieure operculiforme, et beaucoup plus 

petite; charniere edentule; ligament inseredans une fossette alongee et arqu6e; 

une seule impression musculaire, comme dans les huitres.

A. Especes dont le somniet de la valve est subvolute.

Ex. La Gryphee gondole, Gryphcea cymbium, E. m., pi. 189, fig. 1-2, la G. arquee, 

G. arcuata, PI. LIX, fig. 3 [should be 4].

B. Especes dont le sommet de la valve inferieure n'est pas volute.

Ex. La G-. podopsidee, G. podopsidea.

Observ. On ne connoit encore qu'un espece vivant dans la premiere division de 

ce genre. M. Defrance en compte vingt especes fossiles et paroit beaucoup douter 

de 1'existence de Tespece vivante. ...

Here we have a figured type, G. arcuata, and this, in the writer's 

opinion, must be the type of the genus Gryphsea. Examples: G. 

marcoui, G. corrugata, G. navia, G. mucronata. G. arcuata is also 

the type of Paul Fischer's section Liogryphsea, 1886: Manuel de 

conchy liologie, p. 927.

Man. de Conchy liologie, 1887, p. 927.
28 LOWER CRETACEOUS GRYPILEAS OF TEXAS REGION. [BULL. 151.

&. Pycnodonta, Fischer von Waldheim.: Bull. Soc. imp. des naturalistes de Moscou, Vol. VIII, 1835, p. 118.

The date is sometimes given as 1834, sometimes as 1835. The original description is in a letter from Fischer von Waldheim to Ferussac, 

dated December 12,1834, but published in 1835 in the journal already 

mentioned.

This name was proposed for Gryplic&a vesicularis. The form is 

hemispherate; the apical or beak is proportionately less conspicuous 

and the shell thinner than in the Gryphsea s. s.

Examples: Gf. vesicularis, the type, and G. washitce-nsis Hill.

Genus GRYPH.EOSTREA Conrad. 1

We copy the following from Meek's Invertebrate Cretaceous and 

Tertiary Fossils of the Upper Missouri Country. 2

Shell thin, elongate, straight narrow; lower valve rather deep and smooth; 

tipper valve flat or slightly concave, and ornamented with distant, regular, thin, 

concentric laminae: beak of lower valve contorted, or turned to one side; cartilagepit narrow, oblique. Gryphcea vomer Morton (sp.).

In a footnote appended to the foregoing Meek says:

Mr. Conrad did not publish a diagnosis of this type, but merely gave the name 

in a list of fossils. At my request, however, he gave me in manuscript the above 

diagnosis and mentioned the above type. I would add that in perfectly preserved 

specimens the typical species presents the singular peculiarity of throwing out 

long, slender, auricular appendages (one on each side) from the lower valve near 

the beak. These, being very fragile, are nearly always broken away, as the specimens are found; but I observed several with more or less of them preserved in the 

New Jersey beds, and one I found growing in the inside of a Gryphcea vesicularis 

with them perfectly preserved and apparently attached to the Gryphsea by their 

extremities. This type or section might with almost equal propriety be placed as 

a subgenus of Exogyra.

ACCEPTED SPECIES,

Following is a list of all the known described species of fossil 

oysters from the Cretaceous formations of Texas, and such data concerning their geologic horizons and geographic distribution as the 

authors have been able to acquire from many years' experience in 

observing these forms.

Ostrea, Normal forms. 

O. bella Con. 

O. camelina Cragin. 

O. carica Cragin. 

0. congesta Con. 

O. cortex Con. 

O. franklini Coq. 

O. franklini Cragin. 

0. franklini var. ragsdalei Hill.

1 Am. Jour. Conchol., Vol. 1,1865, p. 15.

2 Eept. U. S. Geol. and Geog. Surv. Terr., Vol. IX, 1876, p. 11.
VHA"'GHAH.] CLASSIFICATION OF OSTEEID2E. 29

Ostrea, Normal forms Continued. O. lyoni Shxim. * 

0. owenana Shum. 

O. perversa Cragin. 

O. planovata Shum. 

O. plumosa Mort. 

O. pseudo-franklini Coq. 

O. soleniscus Meek. 

0. subspatulata Forbes. 

O. vellicata Con. 

Alectryonia. 

0. alifera Cragin. 

O. alifera var. pediformis, Cragin. 

O. alternans Cragin. 

0. diluviana Lamck. White.

O. lugubris Conrad. ... 

0. panda Morton.

0. subovata Shum.

O. ?munsoni Hill.

0. quadriplicata Shum.

O. crenulimargo Roemer.

0. crenulimargo stonewallensis Cragin.

O.larva.

O. carinata. 

Exogyra.

Exogyra s. s. . . E. arietina Roemer.

E. colombella Meek. 

E. plexa Cragin. . . E. costata-Say.

E. drakei Cragin.

E. ferox Cragin.

E. laeviuscula Roemer.

E. ponderosa Roemer. . .

E. n. sp., Shoal Creek. . . E. n. sp., from El Paso, Texas. 

Ceratostre.on, Bayle.

E. americana Marcou.

E. Americana var. quitmanensis Cragin,

E. hilli Cragin.

E. texana Roemer.

E. texana var. fragosa Conrad.

E. weatherfordensis Cragin.

E. texana var. hilli. 

Rhyncostreon Bayle.

Ei columbella Meek. 

Gryphsea.

Pycnodonta.

G. vesicularis Lamck.

G. aucella Roemer.

G. newberryi Stanton.'

G. washitaensis Hill.

G. gibberosa Cragin.
30 LOWER CRETACEOUS GRYPH.EAS OP TEXAS REGION. [BULL. 151.

Gryphaea Continued. 

Liogryphsea.

G. mucronata Gabb.

G. corrugata Say.

G. corrugata var. belviderensis Cragin.

G. hilli Cragin.

G. navia Hall.

G. marcoui H. and V.

G. wardi H. and V. I 

Gryphgeostrea.

G. vomer Morton. ^

INDEFINITE AND ABANDONED SPECIES.

The following species have also been reported, but are for the present considered invalid, owing to the fact that they are too poorly 

described to be recognized:

Ostrea roanokensis Cragin.

Exogyra fimbriata Con. .

Exogyra paupercula Cragin.

The following names are abandoned:

Ostrea anomiseformis Roemer, belongs to the genus Anomia.

Ostrea blacki White, O. alifera Cragin, O. alifera var. pediformis Cragin. and 

O. belliplicata Shum.=O. lugubris Con.

Ostrea camelina Cragin = O. franklini Coq.

O. franklini Cragin (not Coq.) == undescribed species.

O. franklini var. ragsdalei Hill=O. ragsdalei Hill. '

Exogyra sinuata Cragin. 

Exogyra walkeri White=E. americana Marcou.

Exogyra weatherfordensis Cragin=E. texana vai-. weatherfordensis.

Exogyra hilli Cragin =E. texana var. jll

Exogyra caprina Con. = E.arietina Roemer. : '.,

Exogyra fragosa Con. =E. texana var.

Ostrea marshi Marcou (not Sowerby)=O. subovata Shumard.

Gryphaea pitcheri of Morton, Hall, Shumard, Roemer, White, et al=G. corrugata, Say.

Exogyra forniculata White = G. navia Hall. .

G. gibberosa Cragin=G. washitaensis Hill.

G. tucumcarii Marcou=G. corrugata Say.

G. hilli Cragin is reduced to varietal rank as G. corrugata var. hilli.

Each of these different species occupies a definite horizon or .range 

(hemera), so that they become valuable landmarks in determining the 

exact geologic position of the beds in which they occur in the general series of rocks, thus giving important data for estimating the 

depth of certain water-bearing strata in the artesian areas of Texas. 

The geologic position and range of the various species are shown in 

the accompanying table (p. 31) and plate (PI. XXIV).
 HIM, AND "I 

VAUGHAX. J CLASSIFICATION OF 'OSTREID/E. 31

NORMAL OSTREA.

0. bellaCon ...................

O. cortex Con. . ...._......-.-..

O. subspatulata Con ........ ....

0. owenana Shum ..............

0. carica Crag ........... ......

0. lyoni Shum .................

O arkl AYiiar»i1Q MAPK

O. pseudo- franklini Coq ........

O. franklini Coq ...............

O. franklini var. camelinas Crag 

O. franklini var. hilli Crag. .....

O Y»Q OPC/I ijlol TTlll

ALECTRYONIA.

0. diluviana Lamck. White.

O. lugubris Con ...._...,..-.---

O. subovata Shum .......'......

O. ? munsoni Hill. . .............

O. panda. .....................

O. quadriplicata Shnm. ........

O. crenulimargo Roemer ..... .

0. larva Goldf uss ......... ....

O. carinata Lamck ......_......

GRYPH.3SA.

G. vomer Morton. . .............

G. aucella Roemer... ....... ...

G-. newberryi Stanton ...........

G. washitaensis Hill ............

G. corrugata Say ...............

G. navia Hall ..................

G. marcoui H. & V. .:..........

G. wardiH. & V............. ..

EXOGYRA.

E. arietina Roemer. .............

E. plexa Cragin ................

E. costata Say............ ......

E. ponderosa Roemer. ..........

E. laeviscula Roemer..... ......

E. columbella Meek ............

E. f erox Cragin ................

E. drakei Cragin ................

E. arietina Roemer .............

E. plexa Cragin ................

E. americana Marcou ............

E. texana Roemer ..............

E. texana var. fragosa Con ......

E. texana var. weatherfordensis 

Crag....... .................

E. texana var. hillii Crag ......

Lower Cretaceous.

Trinity.

X

Glen Rose.

X 

X

X

X

X

X

Paluxy.

X

Walnut.

X

X

Comanche PeakEdwards.

?

X

X

X

Preston.

X

X

X

X 

X 

X

Worth. Fth 

X

X

X

Denison.

y

 s

X

X

X

Upper Cretaceous.

Lower CrossTimbers.

X

X

X

...

Ford. Eagle 

X

X

a

1 

4

V

X

fe

1? 

H

X

X

X

X

X

t 3

So 

gc

gv

a P. ID

X

X

X

X

X

X 

X

Horzion unknown.

X

X

...

...
32 LOWER CRETACEOUS GRYPH^EAS OF TEXAS REGION. [BULL. 151.

In examining the foregoing table and PL XXXV, one is impressed 

with the hemeras or ranges of the various groups. The genus Ostrea, 

which had its origin .before the Cr'etacequs, probably in Carboniferous time, continues with local and horizontal variations through the 

Cretaceous. 

The alectryoniate oysters likewise have an extensive range, and 

are no doubt descended from Jurassic forms. The 0. carinata type, 

however, appears in one horizon of the Lower Cretaceous (Upper 

Comanche), and is not present again until 0. Larva occurs in the 

uppermost Cretaceous.

The particular 0. quadriplicata group has only a limited range, the 

two species 0. quadriplicata Shuuiard and 0. crenulimargo being confined to the Comanche series, and no intermediate forms occur indi' 

eating its ancestry.

Among the gryphseas those of the Lower Cretaceous, with one exception (G-. washitaensis), are confined to the thick-shelled species of the 

G. corrugata type, and there is no doubt that these are differentiated 

from some common ancestral form of the Jurassic, probably closely 

related to 6r. calceola var. nebrascensis. The thin-shelled (Pycnodonta) type has a faint representation in the upper part of the Lower 

Cretaceous, in G-. washitaensis, but occurs in greatest abundance as 

the type of Gryphaea in the Upper Cretaceous, from which the thickshelled species are missing.

The Gryphseostrea is not represented in the Lower Cretaceous, so 

far as we know.

In the exogyras the hemera of the flat-ear-shaped (Ceratostreon) 

group of the E. iexana type is confined to the Lower Cretaceous. E. 

texana is a highly differentiated form, and must have had an ancestry as yet unknown. It is interesting to note that the two well-marked 

groups of Exogyra have different and succeeding, hemeras. The flattened exogj7ras are succeeded in the Middle and Upper Cretaceous 

by the deeply arched, long-beaked, thick-shelled species of the E. 

ponderosa type, of which E. plexa and E. arietina are the ancestral 

forms.

It would be impossible from the American Cretaceous forms alone 

to construct a family tree showing the evolution of all species. In 

the first place, we have in this country no Jurassic fossils of the 

antecedent Atlantic sedimentation, and inasmuch as the prototypes 

from which much of the differentiation proceeded must have existed 

in that period, our record is incomplete. 1

Again, some of the forms, like G-ryphcza vesicularis, Ostrea, carinata, and many others, have trans-Atlantic occurrences, and there is 

no reason to assume that they originated in the Texas region. They 

mayor may not be immigrants from distant loci of origin and descendants of ancestral forms not represented in the Texas sediments.

1 Since this paper was written Jurassic sediments with fossil Ostreidse have been discovered in 

Trans-Pecos Texas, on the western or interior side of the Codilleran front. Further studies 

may give important light on the points discussed.
VAUOHAN.] DISCOVERY OF FORMS. 33

HISTORICAL STATEMENT OF THE DISCOVERY IN THE 

TEXAS REGION OF THE FORMS REFERRED TO GBYPHJEA 

PITCHERI MORTON.

GRYPH^A CORRUGATA Say, 1823.

The first description from the Texas-Indian Territory region of any 

of the group of gryphseate oysters, now commonly but erroneously 

referred to Q-. pitcheri Morton was based upon material collected in 

southern Indian Territory by Mr. Thomas Nuttall, described by Say, 

and published in James's account of Major Long' expedition. 1

The specimens described were found by Nuttall, the botanist, on 

the prairie bordering the Kiainitia River, near its confluence with 

Red River. From the writings of that traveler Ave learn that in 1819 

he also traversed the narrow area of Texas-like prairie lands adjacent 

to the Kiamitia River, lying south of the Ouachita Mountains and 

north of Red River, in southern Choctaw Nation, a region concerning 

the stratigraphy of which little further has been known until the 

senior author's studies and explorations of recent years. 2

Although it is not clear from the records that Major Long collected 

any fossils from the region, he was the first, in 1817, to explore the 

Kiainitia River from its source to its mouth, and first noted the extensive prairies on the lower part of that stream, "some of which," he 

says, "command delightful views of the country." He continues, 

"before you lies the great valley of Red River, exhibiting a pleasing 

variety of forests and lawn; beyond are the summits of the Ozark 

Mountains, imprinting their broad outline upon the margin of the 

sky." Then he describes the area where the characteristic prairies 

of the Texas region, underlain by. the Cretaceous formations,-abut 

against the Paleozoic rocks, the latter projecting above them as the 

mountains of Indian Territory.

Nuttall traversed the same region iii 1819 and described it more 

minutely. 3 From his description (and the senior author has visited 

nearly every locality he describes in his report) one is impressed 

with the acuteness and accuracy of his observations.

Nuttall thus describes the prairie of the Kiamitia, from which these 

fossils were collected: 4

The surface of these woodless expanses was gently undulated and thickly covered with grass knee-high, even to the summits of the hills, offering an almost

1 Account of an expedition from Pittsburg to the Rocky Mountains, performed in the years 

1810-20, under the command of Maj. Stephen H. Long, compiled by Edwin James, Philadelphia, 

1823, Vol. II, pp. 410-411.

2 Neozoic geology of Southwest Arkansas: Ann. Rept. Geol. Survey Arkansas, Vol. II, Little 

Rock, 1888. The Comauche series of the Texas-Arkansas region: Bull. Geol. Soc. America, Vol. 

II, 1891, pp. 503-528. Geology of portions of Texas and Indian Territory adjacent to Red River: 

Bull. Geol. Soc. America, Vol. V, 1894, pp. 297-338. Outlying areas of the Comanche series: Am. 

Jour. Sci., 3d series, Vol. L, 1895, pp. 205-234.

3 Travels into the Arkansa Territory during the Year 1819, Philadelphia, 1821. Although 

Nuttall's explorations were made after Major Long's, the report of his expedition was published 

two years earlier than the latter's.

"Ibid., pp. 156-157.

Bull. 151 3
34 LOWER CRETACEOUS GRYPH^AS OF TEXAS REGION. [BULL. 151.

inexhaustible range to cattle. The flowers, which beautify them at this season of 

nature's vigor, communicated all the appearance of a magnificent garden fantastically decked with innumerable flowers of the most splendid hues. The soil 

appears to be universally calcareous, with the limestone nearly white and full of 

shells, among which there was abundance of a small species of gryphite. and in 

the more compact beds some species of terebratulites. 1 This calcareous rock, different from the Mountain,limestone, often contains uncemented or loose shells 

immersed in beds of friable clay, and is more analogous to that of South Carolina 

and Georgia than that of St. Louis and the Ohio.

The small species of " gryphite" above mentioned was no doubt 

;the same that Say later described, under the name Gryphc&a corru- 

 gata, as having been collected by Nuttall. Say's original description 

is given in full on page 54 of this paper.

If the type of this specimen has been preserved, its existence is 

unknown, but the description, insufficient as it is, when supplemented 

by the reference to Sowerby's plate, enables one to identify the species. It is a remarkable fact, however, that this original description 

and specific name were soon forgotten, and from the day of their publication until the present have been overlooked. It is through the 

kindness of Mr. T. "W. Stanton that the writer's attention has been 

called to this description of Say's. Within eleven years after it had 

been written the same species from the same general locality was 

redescribed under the name G-ryphwa pitcheri, by Dr. S. G. Mdrton, 

.and this name was accepted and used by most subsequent writers until 

the present time.

GRYPHiEA PITCHERI Morton, 1834.

"Soon after the acquirement of the territory of Louisiana by the 

United States, and long before observations had been made on the 

Stratigraphic geology of the Texas region, a military post was established at Fort Towson, in the southwest corner of what is now the 

Choctaw Nation, and in the region which had previously been recoiiuoitered by Long and Nuttall. Among other officers sent to this post 

was an army surgeon, Dr. Z. Pitcher, who, in 1833, gathered some 

fossil shells 2 from the vicinity and sent them to Philadelphia, where, 

in 1834, they were described and figured by Dr. S. G. Mortou. 3

Dr. Morton's description of the species was brief, and his illustration, an exact copy of which is reproduced on PI. VI, fig. 7, based on 

the limited material which he possessed, was very poor. 4 Carefully 

prepared copies of the original type specimen are also reproduced on 

PL VI, figs. 5 and 6.

1 Kingena. 

2 For Pitcher's personal account of the collection of these shells see his letter to Captain, 

Whipple, printed by Prof. Jules Marcou in his "Lettres sur les roches du Jura," etc., Paris 

1860, pp. 291-292.

3 Synopsis of the Organic Remains of the Cretaceous Group of the United States, Philadelphia, 

1834, p. 55, PI. XV, fig. 9.

4 "Morton's figure of Gryphsea pitcheri (Morton), I understand, was made by Conrad." James 

X>. Dana, American Journal of Science, January, 1859, p. 139. 0
"AUGH .] DISCOVERY OF FORMS. 35

Following is an exact copy of this description:

4. G. pitclieri (S. G. M.), PI. XV, fig. 9.

Specific character. Shell thick, expanded, distinctly lobed; lower valve very 

convex; upper valve thick and sub,-convex; beak .distinctly incurved.

Length, one inch; but I possess less perfect specimens nearly three inches long.

I received the fossil, together with some others of great interest, from niy 

friend, Z. Pitcher, M. D., of the U. States Army, who obtained it from the plains 

of the Kianiesha, in Arkansas. I have seen others from the falls of Verdigris 

River, in the same territory.

There is no doubt, as will be shown later in this paper, that the 

Crrop/icea pitclieri of Morton is the same species, from the same locality, as the Gryplicza 'corrugata of Say, and hence, in the final classification, the name GfryphcBCt pitclieri is abandoned.

ROEMER'S GRYPH^EA PITCHERI, 1849.

Some fifteen years after Morton's description appeared Dr. Ferdinand Roenier made the first original paleontologic field studies in the 

Texas region, the scene of his investigation being near New Brannfels, some 350 miles southwest of Fort Towson. He described 1 (1849) 

and figured 2 (1852) from the Waco Indian camp near the Guadalupe 

River, 8 miles above New Braunfels, and other localities, with his 

customary accuracy, a beautiful gryphsea, a fossil entirely distinct 

from Dr. Morton's both in appearance and, as has since been discovered, in geologic occurrence.

Copies of Dr. Roemer's figures are given in PI. XXVI, figs. 1, 2, 3. 

On previous pages, in the discussion concerning the preservation of 

the types of Morton's species, the reasons are given why Dr. Roemer 

correlated this form with Morton's species.

MARCOU'S GRYPH^EA PITCHERI, 1853.

In 1853 Prof. J ales Marcou, en route from Fort Smith, Arkansas, to 

Albuquerque, New Mexico, crossed Indian Territory along the line 

of the Arkansas and Canadian rivers through a region separated 

from the main body of the Cretaceous of Texas and southern Indian 

Territory by the great topographic feature of the east-west mountain 

ranges known as the Ouachita system. On this journey he noted 

two small outcrops of what are now known to be the rocks of the 

Comanche series, and near Comet Creek, a locality in western Oklahoma now known as "G" County, 3 where one of the outlying areas 

of the Comanche series occurs, he collected a form, of Giyphsea 

(G-. naviaof Hall) to which he applied the name G. pitclieri. He also

1 Texas, mit besonderer Rttcksicht auf deutsche Auswanderung, etc., Bonn, 1849.

2 Die Kreidebildungen von Texas und ihre organische Einschlusse, Bonn, 1852.

3 See Outlying areas of the Comanche series in Kansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico, by R. T. 

Hill: Am. Jour. Sci., 3d series, Vol. L, 1895, pp. 205-234.
36 LOWER CRETACEOUS GRYPHJSAS OF TEXAS REGION. [BULL. 151.

pointed out the occurrence of this form at Fort Washita, Indian 

Territory, and near Preston, Texas, from'which places he had seen 

collections made by Dr. G.'G. Shumard. This form he figured most 

excellently, so that it can not be mistaken. The grounds upon which 

he called this form G-. pitcheri Morton were later set forth fully in 

another place. 1 He likewise correlated it with both Morton's and 

Roemer's forms, but later suggested that the latter might be a distinct 

species. 2" The" completeness and the stratigraphic details of the Cretaceous section of the Southwest not being known at this time, naturally the horizon or true place of this form in the Texas section was 

not known.

In 1854 Dr. Benj. F. Shumard described and figured 3 from the Cretaceous clays of Fort Washita, Indian Territory, and at "CrossTimbers, Texas," a form which is probably the same as that described by 

Professor Marcou.

BLAKE'S GRYPH^A PITCHERI, 1855.

In 1855 Mr. W. P. Blake 4 described still another form'of Gryph^ea 

from Texas under the name of Q-ryphcea pitcheri. This is an important form, which was overlooked in the subsequent discussions, and 

which will be here alluded to as Blake's G-ryphcea pitcheri. The 

type locality of this species was the Big Springs of the Colorado, and 

Blake's figure is the first clear illustration of the form herein designated Gr. marcoui (sp. nov.), as will be seen by a comparison of 

figures and by the abundant collections made from his type locality.

SCHIEL'S GRYPH^EA PITCHERI, 1855.

In the same report, 5 the same year (1855), Schiel described still 

another Gfryphc&a pitcheri from what is known to be the Upper Cretaceous system in New Mexico. This form has also been figured as 

a. pitcheri by White (1876). 6 '

HALL'S GRYPHiEA PITCHERI, 1856 (=G. DILATATA VAR. TUCUMCARII Marcou).

Professor Marcou's collections, tlirough official action, 7 were given 

to Prof. James Hall to study, and in 1856 the latter author published 8 

this form as Grryphceapitcheri Morton, saying: "It has clearly the 

typical form and characters of the species, as will be seen by referring 

to Dr. Morton's figure of a small individual."

1 Extracts of Professor Marcou's writings bearing upon this species are given on pp. 14 and 15 

of this paper.

2 Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., Vol. VIII, 1801, pp. 86-97. See quotation on p. 40.

3 Marcy's Exploration of Red River, Washington, 1854, p. 179. PI. VI, fig. 5. 

4 Pacific Railroad Reports, Vol. II, 1855, Pope's report on route near 32d par., The geology of 

the route, p, 39.

5 Beckwith's rept. on route along 41st par., Vol. II, Chap. X, Geology, p. 108. 

6 U. S. Geog.. Surv. west of One hundredth Mer., Vol. IV, 1877, p. 171, PI. XVII, figs, la-lf.

7 Geology of North America, etc., by Jules Marcou, Zurich, 1858, pp. 1-8.

8 Pacific Railroad Reports, Vol. Ill, 1856, p. 100.
VAOGHANN.] DISCOVERY OF FORMS. 37

Professor Hall does not say that he had seen Morton's poor type 

specimen, a copy of the original figure of which is herein reproduced 

on PL XVI, figs. 6 and 7. Later Professor Hall, in an extended review, 1 

expressed two important opinions: (1) That the specimens presented 

" no features, either in form, character, condition of preservation, 

or otherwise, which can serve to distinguish them from Ghryplicua 

pitcheri "of Morton;. and (2) that the beds from which these specimens 

came were of Cretaceous age and not Jurassic.

Professor Marcou, on his journey from Fort Smith to Alburquerque, 

discovered at and near Pyramid Mountain, New Mexico, 300 miles 

west of the locality of his G. pitclieri, the now famous G. dilatata var. 

tucumcarii , Avhich he later figured beautifully and accurately, and 

which, upon grounds then apparently justifiable, he placed in the 

Jurassic. 2

Professor Marcou mentioned this species several times before it was

figured by himself-in 1855, by Hall in 1856, and again by himself in 

1858. In the first 8 of these papers he.provisionally gives the form the 

name Grryphcea tucumcarii. Later he called the form Gr. dilatata var. 

tucumcarii, believing the species to be a variety of the G-. dilatata of 

the European Jurassic. In 1861 he again used the name G. tucumcarii.

HEILPRIN'S GRYPH/BA PITCHERI, 1890.

In the years between 1886 and 1890 the senior author observed, in 

the Lower Cretaceous of Texas, numerous specimens of a Gryphsea 

(see Pis. XX-XXIII) which presented marked external difference 

from the forms described by previous authors. With Roemer's positive assertion in mind that his excellent figures represented the true 

Gryplicea pitcheri (as, in common with most others, he had seen the 

.so-called type in Philadelphia), the senior author early formed the 

conception that if this was true the forms of Gryphcea pitclieri associated with 0. carinata and with E. arietina, respectively, were two

 entirely different species.

The name Gryplicva wasliitaensis was proposed for the former, 

.and specimens were sent to various museums, including the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences. No word was returned intimating that 

the determination was wrong, but within a short time Professor Heilprin published the following remarks: 4

Gryphea ivashitaensis, specimens of which Professor Hill has kindly sent to 

me, is true G. pitcheri, corresponding almost absolutely with the type specimen 

of that species (Morton's) which is contained in the collections of the Academy of 

Natural Sciences.

Later it will be shown that Professor Heilprin was mistaken in his 

identification.

1 Am. Jour. Sci., 2d series, Vol. XXIV, 1857, p. 85.

2 Geology of North America, 1858, PI. IV, figs. 1, la, Ib, and 3. Reproduced on PI. XVI, this work.

3 Resume of a geological reconnaissance extending from Napoleon, at the junction of the 

Arkansas with the Mississippi, etc.: Kept. Expl. Railway Route near 35th Par., by Lieut. Whip-

 ple, pp. 40-48; Thirty-third Congress, 2d session (?), H. Doc. 129,1855.

4 Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. for 1800, p. 452.
38 LOWER CRETACEOUS GRYPH^AS OP TEXAS REGION. [BULL. 151.

GRYPH^EA PITCHERI VAR. HILLI' Cragin, 1891.

Professor Cragin has reported three forms of Gryphsea from the 

Comanche strata of southern Kansas. 2 One of these, which he identified as Exogyra forniculata White, must hereafter be called Gr. no/via, 

Hall. Another well-developed species is the Gr. tucumcarii of Marcou, 

which has an extraordinary development.

The small specimens of Gr. corrugata found in the basal fossiliferous 

beds of the Belvidere, Kansas, section he has called by the name of 

Gr. pitclieri var. liilli* the "hilli phase" 4 and Gr. Mlli. 5 This he has 

alleged to be identical with the Texas form found west of Weatherford, which we herein describe as Grryplicea marcoui sp. nov. We 

have collected abundantly from both localities, and can not agree 

with Professor Cragin that the species are the same. Our studies 

show that the Belvidere specimen is merely a small varietal form of 

6r. corrugata Say.

DIFFERENTIATION.

The more important facts concerning the early discovery and 

descriptions of forms referred to G-ryphcea pitclieri have been briefly 

given.

During the decade of 1850-1860 governmental exploration of the 

southwestern border States and Territories was vigorously prosecuted. 

During this epoch occurred the extended controversy already sketched 

concerning the species under discussion.

Prof. James Hall made the first published intimation that the forms 

which had been called Gr. pitclieri were subdivisible into varieties. 

In his report of 1856, 6 based on Professor Marcou's collections from 

Indian Territory, he first suggested differentiation of the forms called 

Gr. pitclieri by proposing that the name "variety navia" be substituted for the form called Grryphcea pitcheri by Professor Marcou. 

Thus a good varietal differentiation was made, and a great advance 

would have been made had not Professor Hall immediately and erroneously added that this variety "is well represented in the figures of 

Dr. Roemer." This explains why the variety name "nama" in the 

subsequent confusion of literature became attached to Roemer's species instead of Marcou's, to which it was originally applied.

In 1857, one year later, Volume I of the United States arid Mexican 

Boundary Report appeared, the "General Geology "of which is by 

Prof. James Hall, the '' Tertiary and Cretaceous Paleontology " by T. A.

1 Am. Geologist, Vol. XIV, 1894, p. 6.

"See Bull. Washburn College, Vol. I, No. 9, To'peka, Kansas, January, 1889, pp. 33-36, and Vol. 

II, No. 11.

3 Am. Geologist, March, 1891, Vol. VII, p. 184; 1894, Vol. XIV, p. 10. 

'Ibid., 1894, p. 6.

5 Ibid., Dec., 1895, Vol. XVI, pp. 368, 369, 371.

6 Pacific Railroad Reports, Vol. Ill, 1856, p. 100, and PI. I, figs. 7-10.
DIFFERENTIATION. 39

Conrad, and the illustrations by F. B. Meek. Conrad's descriptions 1 

and references to plates and figures are not accurate, and only Meek's, 

excellent figures and the preservation of the type specimens in the 

United States National Museum rescue the contribution from confusion. In a geologic discussion of this report Professor Hall again 

presented his views of the identity of Gr. pitcheri Morton and Gr. 

dilatata 2 Marcou, which, as shown above, he amplified later. The 

five lines of description of G. pitcheri which Conrad gives do not furnish one of the criteria by which any of the gryphseas can be differentiated, but is so generic that it will fit any one of them.

Mr. Conrad, like Professor Hall, recognized the fact that possibly 

more than one variety, if not species, had been confused under the 

general name of G. pitcheri Morton. He speaks of " one resembling 

G. vesicularis, and which is the type of the species as figured and 

described by Morton, and the other truncated anteriorly with a narrow, elongated, boat-shaped umbone, var. navia, PL VII, fig. 3, c, cZ." s

Fig. 3d, the type of Conrad's var. navia, is a poor specimen, which 

can not k; placed satisfactorily. The type of this figure is either an 

abnormal specimen of G. corrugata (Marcou's G. tucumcarii, Morton's G. pitcheri} or a noncarinated specimen of Marcou's Gr. pitcheri, 

which Hall described as var. navia in the preceding year, and which 

Gabb later elevated into the species of G. navia.'1

Let it now be noted that two, and possibly three, forms have been 

called var. navia, to wit: Two by Professor Hall (Marcou's G. pitcheri 

and Roemer's G. pitcheri} and one by Conrad, which is an indefinite 

form, possibty different from either of the above, although probably 

a variety of Marcou's G. pitcheri. <

Gabb was the first to attempt a differentiation into distinct species 

of the forms called Gryphcea pitcheri. In a communication read 

before the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia on February 12, 186], he said: 5

Through the kindness of my friend, Dr. Janeway, I have obtained some specimens of Gry%)hcea Pitclierii from the Indian Territory, near the Choctaw Mission, 

and I believe I now have the means of proving the identity of the true G. 

pitcherii with the form called by Prof. Marcou G. dilatata var. tucumcarii.

With the aid of Professor Marcou's figures, 1 to 3, pi. 4. on one hand, and Dr. 

Morton a types on the other, I have an unbroken series of gradation from one 

form to the other. I have exhibited the suite to a number of the best naturalists in 

Philadelphia, and no one has been able to show a break in the series. Mr. Conrad, 

after a careful examination, pronounced them to be a regular gradation from one 

variety to another of the same species.

Dr. Morton's original specimens, now lying on the table, as well as the last sentence of his descriptions, show that the beak is '' distinctly incurved." Professor 

Marcou refers a form to this species in which the beak is strongly deflected. This

1 U. S. and Mexican Boundary Survey, Vol. 1,1857, p. 155.

2 Am. Jour. Sci., 2d series, Vol. XXIV, 1857, pp. 84-85.

3 The last should read only flg. 3d, for flg. 3c is clearly a side view of the form figured as 3a, 

3b, and now in the United States National Museum.

4 Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. for 1861, p. 22. Gabb called the species navia. 

8 Ibid., p. 22.
40 LOWER CRETACEOUS GRYPH^AS OF TEXAS REGION. [BULL. 151.

form, unknown to Dr. Morton, is, 1 have no doubt, distinct. I have recently gone 

over the whole subject carefully, with the following results: The oblique, carinated form is a distinct species, and must be called Oryphcea navis. The species 

described by Morton is the same as the one called tucumcarii by Marcou. The 

small specimen figured by Morton is said by Marcou to be " incomplete and without the superior valve." This is not so. The specimen is a young one, but is 

very perfect. Dr. Roemer did not see it, because it was lost some time before his 

visit to Philadelphia, and afterwards discovered by me among some rubbish. 

The beak and uinbone are round, there is no carination, and the figure in the 

Synopsis will convey a very correct idea of its form. It is as distinctly lobed as 

the fig. 1, pi. 4, of Geology of N. A.

The large specimen spoken of by Dr. Morton, from the plains of Kiamesha, is 

more nearly of the form of fig. 3 of the same plate. There is every form between 

the two varieties, viz: The one figured by Morton in his Synopsis, pi. 15, fig. 9, 

and the pi. 4, figs. 1 and 2.

I do not wonder that Professor Marcou should have maintained the difference 

between O. pitcherii and G. tucumcarii. as he understood them, but the key to 

the difficulty is this: G. tucumcarii is the typical form of G. pitcherii, while 

G. pitcherii Marcou is G. navis. This can be proven to any person who will take 

the trouble of investigating the subject.

The authors' studies have substantiated the opinions expressed b}' 

Gabb in the foregoing.

In a paper in the Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History, 1 dated May, 1861, Professor Marcou makes the following remarks 

in a footnote:

I have never seen Morton's original specimen. If the figure in his Synopsis of 

the Cretaceous Group of the United States, PI. XV, fig. 9, is correct, it differs in 

its general outline and in the details of both valves from the young specimen of 

G. tucumcarii published in my Geology of North America, PI. IV, fig. 2, and as it 

differs even more from the young specimen of G. Pitcheri, fig. 6, on the same plate, 

I am led to believe that I did not meet with the true G. Pitcheri of Morton in my 

explorations with Captain Whipple's party. Mr. Ferdinand Roemer having the 

opportunity of seeing in the company of the late Dr. Morton himself the original

specimen at Philadelphia, I naturally followed his identification of G. Pitcheri,

and if Roemer has made a mistake, I was misled by his description in Die Kreidebildungen von Texas. Thus we shall have three species of Gryphaea: 1, the 

G. Tucumcarii of the Jurassic rocks of Pyramid Mount (New Mexico); 2, the false 

G. Pitcheri of Roemer and Marcou, or the false G. Pitcheri var. navia of Conrad 

and Hall of the cretaceous rocks of the false Washita River (Texas), which may 

be called G. Roemeri, in honor of its first discoverer, Mr. F. Roemer: and 3, the 

true G. Pitcheri Morton, which I have never seen, and, consequently, on which I 

can not give any information as to its stratigraphical position and association 

with other fossils.

Professor Marcou was mistaken in considering his Cr. tucumcarii 

distinct from Morton's Cr. pitclieri, and in considering his own 

Cr. pitcheri, for which he proposes the name Gr. roemeri, the same as 

Roemer's Cr. pitcheri, later described by Gabb as Cr. mucronata. 2

The magnificent specimens illustrated on PL XXI of the Mexican 

Boundary Report have a strikingly different aspect from the other 

forms illustrated therein as Gr. pitcheri, and anyone who has col1 Vol. VIII, 1832, p. 95.

2 Geol. Survey California, Palaeontology, Vol. II, 1869, pp. 274-275.
V"UQHAK.] DIFFERENTIATION. 41

lected in the Tucumcari region would be very apt to consider them 

the G. tucumcarii of Marcou, as Marcou himself asserted them to be. 

Mr. Conrad later, in 1861, in a letter to Professor Marcou, confessed 

his doubts as to the identity of these forms with G. pitcheri, as

follows: ^

When I drew up the Report in Emory's Survey, I was shown by Professor Hall a 

series of Gryplicea, sonie-of which were undoubtedly your G. tucumcarii, as figured 

on PL XXI. Professor Hall thought they graduated into G. Pitcheri, and I 

thought so at the time. The name of your species ought not to have been placed 

as a synonym to PL VII, fig. 3, for it is undoubtedly G. Pitcheri.

But the figures on the PL XXI represent a species and specimen the locality of 

which is unknown to me, and were engraved after I had sent in my report and 

descriptions. So that I can now say that I do not know whether G. Pi.tche.ri is 

identical with your species or not.

The types of these specimens in the National Museum are labeled 

from Leon Springs, a point in Trans-Pecos Texas, in the western

peripheral region of the Comanche series, almost due south of Tucumcari, and as they are G. tucumcarii Marcou, as Marcou himself alleges, 

this specific name is of no A^alue, for, as we shall show later, they 

possess all the critical features by which G. pitclieri Morton could be 

distinguished from Marcou's species.

Gabb, in the second volume of the Palaeontology of California, 2 

made another contribution to the differentiation of these species. 

He repeated the conclusions previously announced, 8 and redescribed 

Roemer's G. pitclieri, giving it the name G. mucronata. Thus three 

species of the G. pitclieri gimip were clearly defined, viz: G. pitclieri 

Morton ( = G. tucumcarii Marcou), G. navia ( = G. pitclieri of Marcou 

and G. roemeri of the same author), and G. mucronata ( = G. pitclieri 

of Roemer).

Still further specific differentiation of the forms called G. pitclieri 

was later made by Hill, Stanton, and Cragin, as follows:

Gryphc&a washitaensis Hill. During the years 1885,1886, and 1887 

the senior author initiated field studies of the various forms which 

had been called G. pitclieri Morton. He found the form (later 

described in this paper on pp. 59-62, and figured on Pis. XX-XXHI) 

for which he proposed the specific name G. washitaensis.* '

Grryplicza neiuberryi Stanton. In 1893 Mr. T. W. Stanton further 

cleared up the confused synonymy by redescribing under the specific 

name of Q-ryplicva newberryi 5 the forms called G. pitclieri by Schiel 

*ind Newberry, and thus removing them from the G. pitclieri group 

entirely.

. i Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., Vol. VIII, 1861. pp. 96-97. The letter is dated January 25,1861, 

a date previous to Gabb's contribution read before the Philadelphia Academy February 12,1861, 

and already alluded to. 

2 1869, pp. 272-275.

3 Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci, Phila. for 1861, p. 22,1862.

4 University of Texas, School of Geology, Check-List of the Invertebrate Fossils from the Cretaceous formations of Texas, Austin, 1889, p. 11; also Prelim. Check-List of the Cretaceous, 

Invertebrate Fossils of Texas, Bull. 1, Geol. Survey Texas, p. 4, Austin, 1889.

6 The Colorado formation and its invertebrate fauna: Bull. U. S. Survey No. 106,1893, pp. 60-62.
42 LOWER CRETACEOUS GRYPILEAS OF TEXAS REGION. IBULL.ISI.

Grypluva gibberosa Cragin. In 1893 Professor Cragin proposed the 

name gibberosa for a large old-age form of Gryphsea which occurs in 

the same beds at Austin with the species for which the senior author 1 

proposed the name Gryphcea ivashitaensis.

Professor Cragin, as shown on page 30, has also proposed the name 

G. pitclieri* var. hilli for a form from the base of the Kiowa shales 

of Kansas.

As a result of this differentiation of the forms which had once been 

called Gryrjluea pitcheri Morton, the following specific and varietal 

names, indicating a differentiation of the species, have been used in 

the literature of the subject:

G. pitcheri Morton.

G. tucumcarii Marcou (also G. dilatata var. tticumcarii Marcou).

G. pitcheri var. navia Hall.

G. pitcheri var. Navia Conrad.

G. navia Hall Gabb (assigned by Gabb to Conrad).

G. washitaensis Hill.

G. gibberosa Cragin.

G. newberryi Stanton.

G. pitcheri var. hilli Cragin.

Exogyra forniculata White.

According to the law of priority, only the following names for the 

forms called Cr. pitcheri in the list above given can survive, arid 

these, with certain others to be introduced, will hereafter be used in 

this paper:

G. corrugata Say. In accordance with the laws of priority, this has precedence 

over G. pitcheri Morton, G. tucumcarii Marcou, G. dilatata var. tucumcarii 

Marcou, G. pitcheri var. hilli Cragin, and G. hilli Cragin.

G. navia Hall. The synonyms G. roemeri Marcou and Exogyra forniculata 

White must be abandoned.

G. mucronata Gabb, 1861, must supersede G. pitcheri var. navia in part as 

applied to Roeiners G. pitcheri

G. ivashitaensis Hill, of which G. gibberosa Cragin is a very old form. 

G. newberryi Stanton.

In the succeeding chapter, \vhich deals with the systematic classification of the species, this list will be still further modified by the 

introduction of two new specific names, so that the list of all the 

above forms will be as' follows:

Gryphsea wardi sp. nov. 

Gryphaea marcoui sp. nov.- 

Gryphfea corrugata Say.

G. corrugata var. tucumcarii .var. nov.

G. corrugata var. hilli Cragin.

G. corrugata var. belviderensis var. nov. 

G. navia Hall. 

G. washitaensis Hill.. 

G. mucronata Gabb.

1 Contributions to the invertebrate paleontology of the Texas Cretaceous: Fourth Ann. Bept 

Geol. Survey Texas, pp. 189-190, Austin, June, 1893, p. 189, PI. XXX, figs. 1 and 2.

2 Am. Geologist, March, 1891, Vol. VII. No. 3, p. 181. .
VHAUGHAN.] DISTRIBUTION. 43

GEOGRAPHIC AND STRATIGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION OF THE 

[LOWER CRETACEOUS GRYPHJEAS.

Although originally described from the plains of the Kiamitia, in 

the Choctaw Nation of Indian Territory, and "from the falls of the 

Verdigris," 1 the various species referred to Gfryphc&a pitclieri Morton have been reported by various writers from as far north as Kansas and to the westward in New Mexico and Utah. It has also been 

reported from New Jersey, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and 

Mexico, and has even been correlated with species from Europe, 

Africa, and the Andean regions of South America. In the opinion of 

the authors the geographic distribution of these species, so far as 

definitely known, is restricted to the present known areal extent of 

the Comanche series in southern Kansas, Indian Territory, Texas, 

New Mexico, and northern Mexico, and owing to the uncertainty surrounding the identity of the species and the correctness of the correlations, assertions of its occurrence in other regions should be carefully 

examined before acceptance.

Inasmuch as in their studies the writers have never yet found in 

the Upper Cretaceous any form belonging to the so-called types of 

Grypliczci pitcheri group, the reference to 6r. pitclieri by Schiel, Newberry, and White of a certain form found in the Upper Cretaceous of 

New Mexico and Utah has often caused much perplexity. Mr. T. W. 

'Stanton, however, has recently shown that this is an entirely different 

species from the pitcheri group, and has removed it from the controversy by giving it the name Gr. neivberryi. In view of this fact, this 

form need not be further considered in the present paper.

Mr. Conrad was the first to assert that G. pitcheri occurs in the 

Upper Cretaceous in New Jersey. 2 No proof of the statement is given, 

nor has a single specimen which can now be. identified with this species ever been found east of Arkansas or in the Upper Cretaceous of 

North America. Mr. Conrad's erroneous conclusion concerning the 

existence of the species in New Jersey was probably the authority for 

its frequent appearance in subsequent litei^ature.

In Dr. C. A. White's paper on Fossil Ostreidse, published in 1884, 

Q-ryplic&a pitclieri Morton is not only reported as occurring in New 

Jersey, but that locality is given as the place of its original discovery. 

Dr. White says:

This is perhaps one of the most widely distributed and most variable species 

among the Ostreidte of North America. Ifc was originally discovered in the Cretaceous strata of New Jersey, and published by Dr. Morton in his synopsis of the 

Cretaceous formation of the United States.

1 This species does not occur in situ at the falls of the Verdigris, a locality a few miles north 

of Muscogee, Indian Territory, as reported by Morton. The falls are over Carboniferous rocks 

and no Cretaceous outcrops occur within 100 miles of the locality.

a Eept. Mex. Bound. Survey, Vol. 1,1857, Pt. II, p. 141.
44 LOWER CRETACEOUS GRYPH.EAS OF TEXAS REGION. [BULL. 151.

We have shown that the species was originally described from 

what was then Arkansas and is now the Indian Territory, and that 

the several species here called one are not widely distributed; as we 

shall show, each is confined to a definite and limited geologic and 

geographic zone. Whitfield is the only writer who 'actually records 1 the finding of 

this species in New Jersey at various localities, but references to his 

figures and plates show that the form is not a member of the Q-ryplic&a 

pitcheri group, but is an ally of Gryphcza vesicularis.

Hilgard has mentioned 2 G-ryphcea pitcheri as occurring in what is 

now known to be the uppermost division of the Cretaceous in Louisiana. Lerch has repeated 3 this identification, but, as shown by the 

junior author, 4 these identifications are erroneous.

The senior author has already said: 5

Varieties of the G. vesicularis and E. costata in Alabama, Mississippi, and 

Texas have frequently been confusingly termed G. pitcheri, but after most painstaking endeavors and study of the faunas of those regions I have failed to authenticate a single reference of G. pitcheri in the Upper Cretaceous.

The first correlation of this species with forms from South America 

that the writers have found is that given by Roemer, 6 as follows:

Finally, Mr. Leopold von Buch has brought to my attention the agreement of 

the Texas specimens with the specimens in his collection, which were collected by 

Mr. J. Dorneyko in the vicinity of the volcano of Aconcagua, in Chile, 30° S., and 

were designated G. arcuata. Probably, also, at least a part of the forms which 

Coquand and Bayle have described from the same region under the name of Ostrea. 

cymbium Desh. are identical with them. Therefore the species possessed a wide 

distribution on the American continent.

Marcou also 7 speaks of his form of G. pitcheri as "having more 

resemblance to the Gr. couloni (of Europe) than any other species," 

and says that this resemblance led him to consider the strata from 

which they came "as the equivalent of the Neocomian of Europe."

De Loriol, in a personal letter, has called the senior author's attention to a certain gryphaeate oyster ( 0. szajnochai Choffat) from Benguelaland, West Africa, which had a suggestive resemblance to the 

forms called Gryphcea pitcheri of the Texas region by Coquand. It 

is impossible, however, to see in the forms figured 8 more than a general resemblance to the genuine Gr. piicheri (Gr. corrugata Say).

In view of what has already been stated, and anticipating the conclusions to be presented in the later pages, it can only, be said at this 

place that these comparisons have been founded on insufficient data,

1 Mon. U. S. Geol. Survey, Vol. IX, 1885, p. 38.

2 Preliminary Report of a Geological Survey of Louisiana, 1869, p. 11.

3 First Ann. Rept. Geol. Survey Louisiana, 1870, p. 78.

4 The stratigraphy of northwestern Louisiana: Am. Geologist, April, 1895, p. 207. 

8 Neozoic geology of southwest Arkansas: Rept. Geol. Survey Arkansas for 1888, Vol. II, p. 169- 

0 Kreidebildungen von Texas, p. 74. 

'Geology of North America, pp. 38-39.

8 Materiaux pour l'6tude stratigraphique et paleontologique de la Province d'Angola, par 

Paul Choffat et P. de Loriol, Geneve, 1888, pp. 93-93, PI. V., fig. 18.
HILL AND ' 

VAUGHAN.. DISTRIBUTION. 45

and that satisfactory extraterritorial correlation for the present would 

best be eliminated and deferred to more careful studies of the future. 

In the accompanying table we have endeavored to show the position 

of occurrence in the different'beds of the various species of Gryphsea, 

together with their synonymy. The vertical position of these species 

is also shown in the columnar sections of figs. 1, 2, 3, and 4.

Tabular exhibit of forms loliich have been called Gryphcea pitcheri.

Species.

G. vesicularis 

Lam., 1806.

G. newberryiStan

ton, 1893.

G-. mucronata 

Gabb, 1869.

G-. washitaensis 

Hill, 1889.

 

G. navia Hall, 1856<

Synonymy.

G. pitcher! Conrad

(in part), 1857.

G. pitcher! Hilgard. 1869. 

G. pitcheri White 

(in part), 1884.

G. pitcheri Whitfield, .1885.

G. pitcheri Lerch,

1892.

G. pitcheri Schiel,'

1855.

G. pitcheri Newberry, 1861.

G. pitcheri White

(in part), 1876.

G. pitcheri Roemer ,

. 1849. 

G. navia Hall (in 

part) . 1856. 

G. navia Conrad 

(in part) , 1857. 

G. navia White,

1884.

G. pitcheri var. '

dilatata Hill,

1887. 

G. pitcheri Heilprin. 1890.

G. gibberosa Cragin, 1893.

G. pitcheri Mar-'

cou, 1855.

G. pitcheri var.

navia Hall (in

part), 1856. 

G. navia Gabb, 

1861. 

G. roemeri Marcou, 1861.

G. navia Gabb,

1869. . Exogyra forniculata White, 1880.,

Geologic position.

Upper division 

of Upper 

Cretaceous.

Benton, Niobrara. .

Washita division ; Del 

Rio clays 1 

and Grayson 

marls.

Washita division; Fort 

Worth and 

Lower Denison beds.

Washita division; Preston Kiarnitia.

Geographic distribution.

New Jersey and Atlantic coastal plain, 

westward to the Rio 

Grande : Colombia,

S. A. ; Europe.

New Mexico, Colorado,

Utah.

CerroGordo, Arkansas,

west to For t Washita,

Indian Territory; 

Denis on, Denton, 

Handley, Round 

Rock, Austin, west of 

New Braunfels. DeJ 

Rio, and intermediate

points. El Paso and

Trans-Pecos Texas.

Denison to Rio Grande

via Fort Worth, Belton, Salado, Georgetown. Austin, El

Paso.

Goodland, Indian Territory, west to Marietta, south to Belton, Texas. Bexar

County.
46 LOWER CRETACEOUS GRYPEUEAS OF TEXAS REGION. [BULI.ISI. 

Tabular exhibit of forms which have been called Oryphcea pitcheri Continued.

Species.

G. corrugata Say,.

1823.

G. marcoui sp.

nov., 1897.

G. wardi sp. nov.,

1897.

Synonymy.

G . pitcheri Mor ton , 1

1834.

G.tucumcarii Marcou, 1851.

G. dilatata var. tu-

 cmncarii, 1853.

G. pitcheri Hall,

1856.

G. pitcheri Conrad,

1,857.

G. pitcheri Gabb,

1861.

G. pitcheri Dana,

1880. J

G. pitcheri Blake,

1855.

Geologic position..

Washita division; Preston beds.

Fredericksburg division; Walnut clays'

and Coinanche Peak.

Glen Rose beds.

Geographic distribution.

Py'ramidMountain, Tucutncari, northeast

New Mexico; Kent.

Leon Springs, El

Paso. Texas; southern Kansas; also at

Goodl and, Indian

Territory, and south

side of Canadian Valley, Oklahoma.

Wise, Parker, Hood,

Erath, Comanche,

Brown, Lampasas,

Hamilton, Coryell,

Williamson, Burnet,

and Mitchell counties, Texas; and many

other localities.

Travis County, Texas.

SPECIFIC CLASSIFICATION AND EVOLUTION OF THE 

LOWER CRETACEOUS GRTPII^EAS.

Under the above heading it is proposed (1) to specifically define the 

various species which have been called Gr. pitcheri; (2) to discover as 

many data as possible concerning the development and methods of

growth of the Lower Cretaceous gryphseas of the Texas region-; and 

(3) to attempt to show their phylogeny.

The work of various paleontologists, most notable among whom are 

Hyatt, Jackson, and Beecher, has shown the value of the study of the 

development of the individual as an index to the history of its ancestral forms. The principle involved is one that is almost universally 

recognized among students of zoology, whether it be the zoology of 

recent or that of fossil animals, and may be briefly stated in the following words: The successive stages in the development of an individual usually represent adult stages of its ancestors.' The appearance of the adult ancestral characters in embryonic or youthful stages 

is due to acceleration of development, ' In some cases it is known that 

certain modifying conditions have induced changes.in the development of forms, such as the intercalation of the larval and pupal stages 

in higher insects. Therefore, in studying development with a view to 

constructing phylogenetic trees, care must be used to avoid consid-
HILL AND

VAUGHAN,'] CLASSIFICATION- AND EVOLUTION. 47

ering these intercalated or modified larval forms as indicating the 

history of the group.

As the terms employed by previous writers to indicate the stages of 

development will be applied in this paper to the forms here considered, the following explanation of these terms is presented as given 

by Jackson: l

Protembryo. The ovum and stages of segmentation of the egg preceding the 

formation of the blastula cavity.

Mesembryo. The hollow blastula stage comparable to the condition found in 

the adults of Volvox and Eudorina types of the Mesozoa.

Metembryo. The gastrula, comparable to the lower Porifera, in which three 

cell layers exist, as in the lowest Hydrozoa.

Neoembryo. The trochosphere. Stages not yet possessing the essential diagnostic characters of the Mollusca; comparable to the embryos of Chsetopod worms 

and Coelomata.

T?/pembn/0. The period at which an essential molluscan feature, the shell

gland, and plate-like beginning of the shell are discoverable, and yet the embryo 

is not referable to the class to which it properly belongs.

Phylembryo. Early veliger stages in which the characters of the class subdivision are indicated and the structure of the shell and other features render the 

embryo referable to the group of Mollusca to which it belongs.

Completed protoconcli and prodissoconcli. The completed first-formed shell of 

molluscs, the ovisac, fry shell, embryonic shell and larval shell of authors. It 

finds its representative in the globular, cup-shaped, or spirally coiled protoconch 

of cephalopods.

Nepionic period. The period of the first formation of the true shell which succeeds the embryonic shell and is normally retained throughout the rest of life. 

The period is commonly characterized by marked stages.

Nealogic period. The period succeeding the nepionic and preceding that period 

which may properly be considered as the adult. It is frequently characterized 

by marked stages, being a period in which the growing animal often differs 

widely from the adult, and as it is of considerable size, the differences and stage 

are easily recognized. Example, Hinnites cortesi has a pecteniforrn nealogic stage 

sharply marked off from the Ostreaform adult condition.

Ephebolic period. That period best characterized by saying that in it the adult 

characters find fullest expression; it is often separable by marked stages from the 

earlier nealogic period, and also from the later or senile period.

Geratologic period. The period of decline of the individual, often marked by 

distinct stages. The geratologic period is subdivided by. Professor Hyatt into the 

clinologic and nostologic periods, signifying the early and later periods of decline 

of the individual.

Since the publication of Dr. Jackson's memoir, from which the 

above is quoted, some changes in the nomenclature of stages have 

been made. 2 We give these changes for those stages succeeding the 

nepionic:

Neanic = Nealogic.

Ephebic = Ephebolic.

Gerontic = Geratologic.

^hylogeny of the Pelecypoda: Mem. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., Vol. IV. No. 8,1800, p. 290 et seq. 

2 Hyatt, Biaplastology and the related branches of biologic research: Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. 

. Hist., April, 1893, Vol. XXVI, 1895, p. 94.
48 LOWER CRETACEOUS GRYPH^EAS OF TEXAS REGION. [BULL.ISI. ,

It lias been shown by various investigators that in the prodissoconch stage of the oyster the umbones are directed posteriorly. At 

this early stage the young oyster has an anterior and a posterior 4 

adductor muscle. Of these two muscles the anterior arises first. At 

this age the young oyster has a rather straight hinge line. In the 

adult stage we know that only one muscle is present, and on account 

of this fact the oyster has been placed in that division of the Pelecypoda known as the Monomyarians. The muscle which remains is the 

posterior adductor, the first muscle to arise atrophying and disappear- lying. On account of the disappearance of the anterior adductor 

muscle, great changes take place in the axes of the animal. The 

antero-postero axis of the adult, instead of being parallel to the anteropostero axis of the prodissoconch, makes an angle of about 45° with it, 

the posterior adductor muscle having revolved through an angle of 

45°. --The development of Ostrea virginiana, beginning with the pro- ^ 

dissoconch stage and extending to that of the adult, has been worked 

out in very great detail by Dr. Jackson in his memoir 1 from which 

the above data concerning the development of the oyster are taken. 

The writers have, however, been able to verify a good many 6f -Jajis 

observations from an examination of material which lie has prepared. . ^ - 

Dr. Jackson has described in a most admirable manner the revolution 

of the axes of various mollusks due to the diminution or disappear- 'w 

aiice of the anterior adductor muscle, and for the details of these 

changes his paper should be consulted.

In only two species were prodissoconchs seen that were well enough 

preserved to enable the writers to discover the form of the shell in 

that stage. These species were G-ryphcea marcoui and Gryphceawashiiaeiisis, PI. II, figs. 1 and 2, and PI. XX, figs. 1 and 2. In no essential 

features do these prodissoconchs differ from those of recent Ostrea 

virgimca Gmel. The prodissoconch is more or less oval, with the

umbones directed posteriorly.

The nepionic, when the specimens are well preserved, is in all cases 

distinctly marked off from the preceding- proclissoconch and the succeeding neanic. This stage has usually the same form in all the

species. It is generally elliptical in outline and smooth.

 . -ft

^hylogeny of the Pelecypoda, the AviculicUe and their allies, loc. cit.,p. 47.
DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES.

GRYPHJEA.

GRYPH^EA WARDI, sp. nov. 

Pi. I, figs. 1-16.

Upper valve. The shape of the valve is irregular in outline. Two 

different areas can be recognized. First, one in which it is convex, 

the lines of growth being fine and the surface rather smooth. In this 

stage there are small ridges running approximately at right angles 

from the hinge margin. These raised lines when seen in profile present gently rounded upper surfaces with depressions between them. 

Second, succeeding this stage is one in which the outer margins of 

the valves turn upward somewhat abruptly. The length of one of the 

larger specimens is 19 mm., the breadth 18 mm. The margins are 

milled on the anterior portion. The muscular impression is deeply 

excavated on the. anterior side, but not at all excavated on the posterior. The young of this species is broader than is usually the case 

in the other gryphseas herein considered; but it resembles those 

specimens of Cr. marcoui that have a large area of attachment for the 

lower valve. The sculpture, however, is different. Attention has 

been called to the fact that the markings running away from the 

hinge line in the species under consideration present a rounded upper 

surface. In those specimens of G. maraoui which have similarly 

shaped upper valves the markings are narrow ridges witli wide flat 

areas between them. Whether this difference is of any importance 

we can not at present say, but probably it is not. No prodissoconch 

could be discovered; therefore we can not describe that early stage.

Lower valve. The shape of the lower valve is extremely variable, 

its chief variation consisting in the amount and mode of attachment. 

The shells are thin and always small, the largest that we have seen 

being only 25.5 mm. long. The attached area may vary from 6 to 12 

mm., or may be even more across, showing that in proportion to the 

size of the shell this area is very large. Sometimes the valve is 

attached to a gasteropod shell, and is correspondingly elongated parallel to the greatest length of the object to which it is attached. The 

surface may be plain, but is usually ornamented with rather strong 

folds parallel to the direction of elongation of the shell. The lines of 

growth are very regular; the margin is sharp and undoubtedly projected beyond that of the upper valve. A short distance within in 

one specimen measured to be 2 mm. are raised lines or crenulations 

Bull. 151 4 49
50 LOWER CRETACEOUS GKYPH^AS OF TEXAS REGION. [BULL. 151.

corresponding to those of the upper valve. The direction of the cartilage pit is variable in both the upper and the lower valves, as it 

depends upon the amount and mode of attachment of the lower valve.

Upon first examining this species it is difficult to decide what its 

natural affinities with other oysters are, and it is only by comparison 

with other species that this could be discovered with certainty. The 

resemblance of the upper valve to that of certain specimens of G. 

marcoui has been pointed out. The forms of the species under discussion with small areas of attachment can not be distinguished from 

young specimens of Cr. marcoui with a rather large area of attachment. So far as we know, this species does not grow to the normal 

size of the Comanche Peak form.

The stratigraphic position of this gryphsea is in the Glen Rose beds 

of the Trinitj7 division.

Specimens have been collected from the roadside between Bee Creek 

and Pedernalis River, Travis County, Texas, in the Blanco quadrangle 

on the road leading from Beecaves to Corwin; they have also been collected north of Onion Creek, near Driftwood post-office, Hays County, 

and Lohmann's Crossing of the Colorado River, Travis County.

As this species occurs not far below Gryphcza marcoui of the 

Comanche Peak formation, and as the two undoubtedly grade into 

each other, we must regard it as the immediate and undoubted ancestor 

of the latter.

GRYPH^EA MARCOUI, sp. nov.

Pis. II, ill, IV, V,

Grypliwa pitclieri Blake (not Morton). Reports of Explorations and Surveys to 

ascertain the Most Practicable and Economical Route for a Railroad from 

the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, Vol. II, 1855, Pope's Rept. on 

Route near 32d Par., The Geology of the Route, p. 39.

The following is the description of what may be considered a typical 

adult upper valve.- The usual outline of the valve is oval, with the 

end which corresponds to the hinge margin truncated. The length 

of a valve of an ordinary size is 28 mm.; its greatest breadth is 20 

mm.; the breadth at the hinge line is 8 mm. The surface for allstages succeeding the nepionicis rough; the cartilage pit, on account 

of the sharp incurving of the beak of the lower valve, is on the upper 

surface, and is wide in the specimen described. From the beak to 

the anterior margin of the cartilage pit is 4 mm. The sides of the 

valve in the anterior portion are sinuous but not especially thickened. 

The dorsal margin of the shell is sharply reflexed toward the right; 

the margins are milled through a variable extent; muscular impression is excavated on the anterior but not on the posterior side; in outline it is oval.

The adult lower valve normally has a strongly incurved narrow 

beak with a small area of attachment, slight ridges radiating from 

the beak, and a distinct dorsal sinus. * The lines of growth are coarse.
\-AooifS] DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES. 51

The narrow beak is caused by the mantle spreading out but little in 

the stages extending from the neanic to the ephebic, including both. 

In the gerontic it spreads out considerably to the dorsal. It is the 

narrow incurved beak with a small area of attachment and the occurrence in the gerontic stage of an extremely deep dorsal sinus with a 

high dorsal wing that characterizes this species.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE UPPER VALVE.

Prodissoconch. Among the upper valves of this species that we 

have we did not discover perfect prodissoconchs, but they were sufficiently well preserved to permit one to make out the chief features 

of the stage.

The form is suboval, with the more pointed end directed anteriorly 

and the urabones directed posteriorly. The stage is sharply marked

off from the succeeding nepiouic.

The nepionic. The relationship that the nepionic growth bears to 

the prodissoconch is interesting. It should be stated here that the 

anterior margin of the prodissoconch is directed toward the ventral 

margin of the adult oyster, and the posterior margin of the prodissoconch is by necessity directed toward the dorsal margin of the adult 

oyster. The lines of growth of the nepionic extend around the anterior side of the prodissoconch in gentle curves, ceasing near the position of the umbones. The later growth on the ventral side of the 

nepionic continues in gentle curves. On the posterior side of the 

prodissoconch the nepionic lines of growth at first extend around in 

gentle curves, but after a very short time do not extend around it, and 

build a slight shoulder. The growth at this early stage is of such a 

character as to form a slight dorsal wing, and there are indications of 

the dorsal sinus. The surface of the shell in the nepionic stage is 

smooth, the lines of growth being indistinct. Usually the form is 

that of an elongate ellipse, the longer axis of the ellipse being parallel to the longer axis of the individual, but in some cases the form 

is subcircular instead of being elliptical. This variation in form is 

due to attachment of the lower valve. If the lower valve has a large 

area of attachment, its method of growth would necessarily be somewhat circular or of an irregular shape, and as the upper valve must 

conform to the outlines of the lower, we should see a variation of the 

upper valve corresponding to the varying form of the lower. We 

have called attention already to the close resemblance of the upper 

valves in some specimens of Gr. marcoui to those found in the preceding species. The size of the nepionic is about 6 mm. long and 5 

mm. wide. In another specimen it is 7.5 mm. long and 5 mm. wide. 

The figures illustrate the variations well.

An interesting abnormality in this species is shown in one of the 

upper valves. Instead of adopting the ordinary giyphseate method of 

growth, by which the increase in growth is approximately the same
52 LOWEK'CRETACEOUS GRYPH/EAS OF TEXAS REGION. [BULL.ISI.

on each side of a plane bisecting the two valves longitudinally, this 

specimen has assumed an exogyrate method of growth, the ventral 

margin growing very rapidly, whereas the dorsal margin has grown 

but slowly, in this way indicating that should the specimen have 

reached maturity it would nave been forced into a spiral such as is 

characteristic of Exogyra.

The neanic. This stage is introduced usually by the lines of growth 

becoming very distinct, the surface rough, and the postero-dorsal 

sinus more distinctly marked. In some specimens, in a stage which 

seems to correspond to the neanic, there are radiating impressed lines, 

but in the particular specimens to which we allude 'the surface is not 

rough, but rather smooth, and it may be that we are mistaken in considering this stage as neanic, though it seems to be such.

The ephebic. The neanic stage passes imperceptibly into the adult 

or ephebic stage. The latter stage is indicated by a considerable 

bending to the right .of the dorsal margin of the valve, thus marking 

very clearly the position of the dorsal sinus.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE LOWER VALVE.

OIL account of the attachment of the lower valve we were not able 

to discover the character of the prodissoconch, but the nepionic stage 

is well indicated. In forms which show small areas of attachment 

this stage is smooth, rather flat, curving but little, and is usually 

sharply marked off from the succeeding neanic. In other specimens 

with large areas of attachment the nepionic stage can not be so easily 

recognized. The form, at least in the later period of the stage, presents an elongate elliptical outline.

The neanic. At the close of the nepionic stage the method of growth 

changes. Instead of being smooth and flat, curvature and very distinct lines of growth are initiated. This curvature seems to be caused 

by two combined principles. The first is that the lines of growth on 

the posterior part of the shell are much farther apart than on the 

anterior portion. This fact in itself would not give curvature unless 

the calcareous deposit of the mantle in the posterior part were much 

thicker than in the anterior portion. We know from the study of sections that the deposit of the mantle is thicker in the anterior than in 

the posterior portion; so this would tend to counteract the curvature. 

Each succeeding plate laid down by the mantle is at an angle to the 

preceding plate. The angle between the last plate and the preceding 

one is less than 180° on tfye interior of the shell and more than 180° 

on the exterior; so the chief mechanical principle involved in the 

curvature is due to the varying angles of these successive plates. It 

is aided, however, by the growth being more rapid in the posterior 

than in the anterior portion of the shell.

The ephebic. The neanic stage is not distinctly marked off from the 

ephebic. The posterior dorsal sinus in the latter begins to show its
HILL AND 

VADGHAN. ] DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES. 53

characters in the nepionic, and does not increase until what is apparently the gerontic stage is reached.

The gerontic. At the close of the ephebic stage the sinus becomes 

very deep and a high dorsal wing is protruded. Although some of 

the young forms show rather large areas of attachment in the very 

large suites of specimens we have examined, it does not seem that 

these specimens ever reach maturity.

In one specimen which we possess an interesting variation is seen. 

In this specimen, although we have the narrow beak which is one of 

the characteristics of the species, the margins dilate rather gradually 

and the shell is very much thicker in the anterior portion, so as to 

present characters almost identical with those of some forms of G. 

mucronata. In the gradual dilation of the sides also, and in the small 

curvature of the old-age or gerontic stage, a method of growth very 

similar .to that of G. corrugata is assumed.

Geologic position. In the Walnut clays, the base of the Comanche 

Peak beds, and occasionally in the Edwards limestone.

This species constitutes the horizon of Cr. .pitclieri with Exogyra 

texana as given1 in Hill's original section, and now known as the Walnut beds of the base of the Fredericksburg division.

Geographic distribution. Parker, Bosque, Hamilton, Coleman, 

Coryell, Brown, and Hood counties of north-central Texas, constituting great masses of shell agglomerate, reaching in places 10 feet in 

thickness. Southward, in Travis, Burnet, and other counties, it is 

still abundant, but not so gregarious as in north and central Texas.

It is the form figured by Blake, 2 from Big Springs on the Colorado 

River, and called Gryphcea pitclieri by him.

In Edwards County, Texas, we collected the species in the Caprina 

limestone.

CORRUGATA Say.

Pis. V-XV, XVIII and XIX.

Gryplicea corrugata n. s. Say. Account of Exped. Pittsburg to Rocky Mountains,

Vol. II, Phila., 1823, pp. 410-411. 

Grypliwa pitclieri n. s. Morton. Synop. Org. Rem. Cret. Gr. U. S., Phila., 1834,

p. 55, PI. XV, fig. 9. 

Gryphcea tucumcarii n. s. Marcou. Resume of a geol. recon., etc.; Rept. Expl.

R R. Route from Miss. River to Pacific: Whipple, House Doc. 129, Washington, 1851, pp. 44-48. 

Gryplicea dilatala var. tucumcarii Marcou. Bull. Soc. geol. France, 2d series, Vol.

XII, 1855, p. 880, PI. XXI, figs. 1, la, Ib, 2, and 3. 

Gryphcza pitclieri (Morton) Conrad. Rept. U. S. and Mex. Bound. Survey,

Vol. I, 1857, Pt. II, p. 155, pi. 7, figs. 3a, 3b, and 3c (3d on this plate is

probably a variety intermediate between G. corrugata and G. navia Hall,

being more closely related to the latter species); pi. 10, fig. 2; and pi. 21,

fig. 3a, b, c.

1 Am. Jour. Sci., 3d series, Vol. XXXIII, 1887, pp. 298-299.

2 Pacific Railroad Reports, Vol. II, 1855; Pope's rept. on route near 32d par., The geology of 

the route, p. 39.
54 LOWER CRETACEOUS (3RYPH.EAS OF TEXAS REGION. [BULL. 151.

Gryphcea pitcheri (Morton) Hall. Rept. Expl. and Surv. R. R. from Miss. River

to Pacific, Vol. Ill, Washington, 1856, Pt. IV, pp. 99-100, PI. I, figs. 1-6. 

Gryphcea dilatata var. tucumcarii n. var. Marcou. Geology of North America,

Zurich, 1858, pp. 43-44, PI. IV, figs. 1, la, Ib, 2, and 3. 

Gryphceapitclieri (Morton) Gabb. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., Vol. XIII, 1861-

1862, p. 22. 

Gryphcea pitcheri (Morton) Gabb. Geol. Survey California. Paleontology, Vol.

II, Phila., 1869, pp. 272-273. 

Gryphcea pitcheri (Morton) Dana. Manual of Geology, 3d ed., 1880, p. 461,

fig. 836. 

Gryphcea pitcheri (Morton) var. hilli. n. var. Cragin. Am. Geologist, March,

1891, Vol. VII, p. 181. 

Gryphcea pitcheri var. " hilli phase" Cragin. Am. Geologist, July, 1894, Vol.

XIV, p. 6.

Gryphcea pitcheri var. hilli Cragin. Am. Geologist, July, 1894, Vol. XIV, p. 10. 

Gryphcea pitcheri (Morton) Dana. Manual of Geology, 4th ed., 1895, p. 835, fig.

1359. . , Gryphcea hilli Cragin. Am. Geologist, Dec., 1895, Vol. XVI, pp. 368, 369,. and 371.

The following is Say's original description: 1

Among the shells found about Red river, is one which approaches nearest to 

the variety of the Gryphcea dilatata of Sowerby, p. 149, fig. 2, but the lobe is far 

less distinct, and the shell is far more narrowed toward the hinge, and is somewhat less dilated, and much more like an ostrea. It may be called G. corrugata; 

small valve flat, and very much wrinkled, and like the other, narrowed near the 

hinge; the beak is short, and curved upwards and laterally, and the sulcus is very 

distinct. Length and greatest breadth of the small valve nearly equal, from 1| 

inches to 2 inches; found by Mr. Nuttall on Red river. It is in a very perfect 

state of preservation.

The adult upper valve is subtriangular in outline, the greatest 

length in a typical specimen being 67 mm., its greatest width about 

the same; the width at the hinge line is about 22 mm. The margins 

are slightly crenulated; the shell is thick, being in a typical adult 

specimen about 11 mm.; the muscular impressions are well marked, 

slightly impressed anteriorly, and posteriorly there is a raised rim. 

In the anterior portion the shell is thickened on the sides considerably. These various features are shown in the figures.

Ltower valve. The adult specimen usually shows gradually widening margins with an incurved beak; the shell is boat-shaped and 

thick. The ligamental pit is large, the lines of growth are coarse, the 

dorsal sinus is distinct, and there is a considerable wing posterior to 

it. The beak is usually though not always slightly twisted toward 

the dorsal margin. The following are the measurements of what may 

be considered a normal adult: Length, 94 mm.; width, 67 mm.; 

length of cartilage pit, 14 mm.; greatest width of cartilage pit, 14 mm. 

An attempt has been made in the accompanying plates to show the 

variations of the species. The variation in the character of the beak

1 Major Long's manuscript journal: Account of Long expedition, by Edwin James, Vol. II, 

Philadelphia, 1823, pp. 410-411.
VA'UGH .] DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES. 55

and the reason of it will be stated later. As a usual thing, in. the 

lower valve there is no carina, the region ventral to the dorsal sinus 

being gently rounded. In some forms, however, which have the beak 

slightly twisted, although there is no distinct carina, the portion of 

the shell below the dorsal sinus becomes much constricted. The constriction of this region of the shell is a very important fact and must 

be borne in mind in comparing it with Gr. navia. There is a great 

variation also in amount of dilation of the wings, and this variation 

must be borne in mind in considering the Gr. washitaensis.

In. a collection from Duck Creek, near Denison, Texas, coming from 

the upper part of the Kiamitia clays, where they grade into the overlying Duck Creek beds, there are forms which can be recognized as 

belonging to the following species: Gryphtea corrugata, Grryphc&a 

'navia, and Giryphcm luasliitaensis. The Gr. navia approaches Gr. corrugatavQiy closely, and G. corrugata apparently grades into Gr. washitaensis, though Gr. washitaensis and Gr. navia have great differences 

within themselves which would probably prevent their confusion.

Development of the upper valve. Although we have large suites of 

this species, we were not able to discover any specimens with wellpreserved prodissoconchs. As the prodissoconch is most probably the 

same for all species of oysters, the failure to discover it in this species 

is not a matter of very great moment. The nepionic stage was very 

well preserved and resembles in general characters that of Grryphc&a 

marcoui rather closely, except that it is somewhat broader. This 

stage is characterized by a rather smooth method of growth. Its size 

is about 11 mm. long and 9 or 10 mm. wide.

Succeeding the nepionic stage the valves widen rather rapidly, with 

very coarse lines of growth, and a slight ridge near the dorsal margin 

indicates the position of the dorsal sinus.

Development of tlie lower valve. This valve is usually attached during the early periods of growth, and we did not discover the prodissoconch. The stages succeeding this one can be made out with moderate 

distinctness. In very young specimens two types of development may 

be recognized. The first is one in which the area of attachment is 

quite small, or can not be seen, and the nepionic growth is elongate 

elliptical, the elliptical outline of the growth continuing through a 

considerable portion of the neanic stage. The second type is one in 

which the method of growth is not so elongately elliptical or may be 

subcircular. In one specimen which we studied, the nepionic growth 

in very early stages was elongate elliptical, and suddenly becomes more 

nearly subcircular. In some of those specimens which show considerable areas of attachment, we can not discuss the early stages with 

much satisfaction. The two methods of growth above described lead 

to two types of adults. The first method of growth leads to an adult with 

a rather narrow-pointed, sharply incurved beak. The second method
56 LOWER CRKTACEOUS GRYPH/EA.S OF TEXAS REGION. [BULL. 151.

leads to an adnlt with a blunt, slightly incurved beak. As we saw that 

the early stages of the two different types of growth were practically 

the same, it seems that the form with the elongate elliptical method 

of growth was one in which the embryonic characters persisted for a 

longer time. The neanic stage is marked off from, the nepionic, as in 

the previously described species, by the introduction of a rapid curving of the valve. Some specimens show in this stage slight radiating 

folds. With the introduction of the neanic stage the dorsal sinus 

becomes much more distinctly marked, and a dorsal wing is present. 

Varieties of Gryphc&a corrugata. This species shows several distinct varietal forms, as follows: (1) G. corrugata var. liilli Cragin. 

This occurs in great numbers near the base of the Kiowa shales of 

the Belvidere beds of Kansas, stratigraphically below the G. navia. 

and the larger varietal forms of G. corrugata to be mentioned later. 

This form, called Gryphc&a hitti by Cragin, is beyond doubt a small 

ancestral form of G. corrugata, and shows comprehensive characters 

of the three forms G. marcoui, G. corrugata, and G. navia. The 

figures of var. liilli are given on PL VIII, figs. 8, 9, 11, 13, 14, and can 

be compared with the young individuals of G. corrugata from Goodland, Indian Territory, PI. VI, figs. 1-4, and the figures of the cast of 

Morton's type of G. pitcheri, PI. VI, figs. 5, 6, 7; (2) G. corrugata 

var. tucumcarii. The larger forms of G. corrugata, such as were 

figured by Marcou and called by him Gryphcua dilatata var. tucumcarii, good specimens of which are shown on Pis. XIII, XIV, and

XVI, constitute a recognizable variety of G. corrugata, and come 

from a slightly higher horizon of the Washita division; (3) G. corrugata var. belviderensis. In the Belvidere beds of Kansas the larger 

specimens of G. corrugata (Pis. IX and X) also come from a higher 

horizon than the smaller forms mentioned and tend to assume a more 

triangular and flattened outline than the allied synchronous forms 

called var. tucumcarn (see PI. XIV, figs. 1, 2; XVI, figs. 1, 2, 3; and

XVII, fig. 5).

Geological occurrence. The typical G. corrugata Say (G. pitcheri 

Morton) occurs in the upper portion of the Kiamitia beds of the 

Washita division, near their contact with the Duck Creek chalk, in 

the Red River portion of the main Cretaceous area. At Denison, 

Texas, this form appears in a bed in the Duck Creek chalk, which 

contains the last of the lower-ranging G. navia of Hall and the first 

of the upward-ranging G. wasliitaensis Hill. In the outlying areas 

G. corrugata var. hilli is the earliest to appear, and-this is succeeded 

in ascending series by G. navia, and then by G. corrugata vars. 

tucumcarii and ~belviderensis.

Geographic distribution. The normal type has its typical development in the main Texas area, in southern Indian Territory from the 

Arkansas line to Fort Washita, and in Cooke and Gray son counties, 

Texas. The southernmost localities reported are in the vicinity of 

Georgetown and Round Rock, Wiiliamson County, and in the north-
DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES. 57

evn part of Travis County. The same conditions which have prodnced known differences in sedimentation "between the outlying and

^ main areas of the Cretaceous series seem to have facilitated varietal 

differences in the forms Gr. corrugata, which may explain the fact 

that the large forms which we have called vars. tucumcarii and belviderensis occur only in these outlying areas in Barber, Comanche, 

Kiowa, and other counties in southern Kansas and along the eastern

\ breaks of the plains ; thence southward through Oklahoma to the head

>- of the Washita River; in the Tucumcari region of New Mexico, and 

near the base of the Rio Grande section Avest of El Paso, Kent, and 

other places in Trans-Pecos Texas.

From Nuttall's writings we learn that the exact locality of his original collection was on the plains of the Kiariitia, about 14 miles northwest of the mouth of that stream. The present town of Goodland,

y Choctaw Nation, is as near the locality as can be identified, and from

this place the senior author collected several hundred shells of this 

species, which are now deposited with his collection in the State capitol of Texas. Later the junior author made a second collection from 

the same locality, which is now in the United States National Museum. 

Phylogeny of Grrypliaza corrugata. In discussing the young forms 

of this species the two types of growth have been described. Of the 

tAvo types described, the one Avith the narrow beak is the one in Avhich 

it is probable that the embryonic method of growth has persisted for 

the longest time. This, as Ave have shown, gives rise to a narrow, 

elongate beak. "We also have noticed in the early stages the presence 

of narroAv radiating folds. Reasoning a priori, we should expect the 

ancestor of this species to be a form Avith a narroAv beak, and one 

which possessed radiating folds. In searching for a form Avhich 

could probably have given rise to this, our attention is directed to 

Cr. marcoui, which possesses both the narroAv incurved beak and the 

radiating folds. There is stronger reason than this, however, for 

associating these two species phylogenetically. It Avas shown in discussing Gr. marcoui that sometimes it assumes a variation Avhich is 

very similar to the type of growth of Q-. corrugata. Putting together 

c all the facts that A\re haAre regarding the development and variations 

of G. corrugata, its stratigraphic occurrence, and those facts that we 

have concerning the deA^elopment and variation of Gr. marcoui, the 

conclusion seems justifiable that the former is descended from the 

latter or from some closely allied form.

SA NA.VIA Hall.

. - Pis. XVII, XVIII.

Gryphcea pitcheri Marcou (not Movton). 'Bull. Soc. Geol. France, 2d series,

Vol. XII, 1855, p. 883, PI. XXI, figs. 5, 5a-b arid 6. 

Qrypliaia pitcheri var. navia Hall n. var. Rept. Expl. and Surv. R. R. from

Miss. River to Pacific, Vol. Ill, Washington, 1856, Pt. IV, p. 100, PI. I,

figs. 7-10.
58 LOWER CRETACEOUS GRYPH^AS OF TEXAS REGION.

Gryphcea pitcheri var. navia Conrad (in part). Rept. U. S. and Mex. Bound. 

Survey, Vol. I, Washington, 1857, Pt. II, p. 155, pi. 7, fig. 3d. (The specimen figured in the place here referred to is a form somewhat intermediate 

between G. corrugata and G. navia, but is more closely related to the latter 

species.)

Gryphcea pitcheri Marcou (not Morton). Geology of North America, Zurich, 

1858, pp. 38-40, pi. 4, figs. 5, oa, b, c, and 6.

Gryphcea roemeri Marcou. Proc. Boston Sob. Nat. Hist., Vol. VIII, 1862, p. 95.

Gryphcea navia G-abb. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila. for 1861, 1862, p. 22.

Gryphcea navia (Conrad) Gabb. Geol. Survey California, Paleontology, Vol. II, 

Phila.,1869, pp. 273-274.

Ostreapitcheri Coquand (in part). Mon. du genre Ostrea, Terr. Cretace, 1869, p. 

40, PI. XII, figs. 5 and 6.

Exogyra forniculata n. s. White. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., Vol. II (1879), Washington, 1880, Pt. II, pp. 298-294, pi. 4, figs. 3 and 4. Smithsonian Miscell. 

Coll., Vol. XIX, Washington, 1880, pp. 293-294.

Exogyra -forniculata White. Twelfth Ann. Kept. U. S. Geol. and Geog. Surv. 

Terr., Washington, 1883, pp. 13 and 14, Pt. I, pi. 14, figs. 2a and 2b.

Exogyra forniculata White. Fourth Ann. Rept. U. S. Geol. Surv., Washington, 

1884, p. 305, PL LII, figs. 1 and 2.

Gryphcea pitcheri Brown (not Morton). Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., for 1894, 

p. 65.

Upper valve. General form ovate, the posterior dorsal portion 

reflexed toward the right. The cartilage pit descends somewhat from 

the apex ventrad. Dorsal margin of the valve considerably thickened; ventral margin of the valve very much thickened. Both the 

dorsal and ventral margins marked by minute transverse stride, which 

are especially distinct on the latter. Posterior margin of the valve 

not especially thickened. Lines of growth coarse; the plates constituting the shell structure are thick. The nepionic stage distinctly 

marked off from the succeeding growth. Its size is 12 mm. long by 

8 mm. wide. The figures on PL XVIII illustrate the characters above 

described.

Lower valve. The nepionic and early neaiiic stages of this valve are 

practically the same as those individuals of G. corrugata which possess a prolonged beak. In the later neanic stage, however, a carina 

begins to be developed and the mantle spreads out dorsally, thus producing a dorsal wing. On the lower side the valve is sharply incurved, 

so that a carina is produced. Between the wing to the dorsal of the 

sinus and the carina there is a depressed area which is frequently 

marked by slight ridges running from the beak. This species is very 

easily characterized by the possession of the carina, the depressed 

area extending from the carina to the dorsal sinus, the bending 

toward the dorsal margin, and the strong incurving of the beaks. It 

has already been noted that the features in the young stages of this 

species are possessed in their entirety by some varieties of G. oorrugata, and-there seems to be no doubt, in spite of the usual great distinctness of the adult of G. corrugata and Gr. navia, that they are 

both derived from an ancestral form of the typical G. corrugata.
\"AUGH!N.] DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES. 59

This conclusion, however, is not based merely on the studying of the 

development, but the specimens from the Kiamitia clays of Duck 

Creek, near Denison, connect the two species very closely; in fact, so 

closely that it is with considerable difficulty that some specimens can 

be referred to either one or the other.

Geologic and geographic distribution. In the main Texas area this 

form is found in the Kiamitia clays at the base of the Washita division, from the Arkansas State line in Indian Territory westward 

through the prairies of the Kiamitia ,to near Marietta, and thence 

southward through Texas to the Colorado, always in the same geological horizon. It is the chief species found on the plains of the 

Kiamitia, in northern Texas and in Indian Territory, where it occurs 

by millions. The form is especially abundant at old Fort Washita, 

Indian Territory, where the buildings are constructed of flags formed 

almost entirely of these shells. The high prairie surmounting Red 

River Valley south of old Preston is also marked by this species. In 

Grayson County, Texas, at the top of the Kiamitia clays, near their 

contact with the overlying Duck Creek chalk, Cr. navia is mixed with 

Cr. washitaensis Hill, G. corrugata Say, and Exogyra plexa Cragin. 

In the "outlying areas of the Comanche series" the species occurs 

abundantly in the southern counties of Kansas, Kiowa and Comanche; 

near old Camp Supply, 10 miles west of north from Taloga, 18 miles' 

north of Arapahoe, 10 miles south of west from Arapahoe, and, according to Mr. G. T. Dulaney, 21 miles north of west from Arapahoe, in 

the bluffs of Panther Creek, in Oklahoma. Marcou's original localities are between the South Fork of the Canadian and the Washita 

River, west of Arapahoe. It is very abundant in the Pass of the Rio 

Grande, 3 miles west of El Paso, Texas.

It is a singular fact that this form does not occur abundantly, if at 

all, south of the Colorado River, bat is apparently confined to the 

northern provinces of the areal outcrop of the Comanche series.

GRYPHJEA WASHITAENSIS Hill. 

Pis. XIX, XX, XXI, XXII, XXIII.

Gryphcea pitclizri Morton, var. dilatata Hill. Am. Jour. Sci., 3d series, Vol.

XXXIV, 1887, p. 303. 

Gry%)hcea loashitaensis Hill sp. nov. Check List of the Invertebrate Fossils from

the Cretaceous Formation's of Texas, 1st eel., 1889, p. 11. 

Gryphcea wasliitaensis Hill, sp. nov. A Preliminary Annotated Check List of the

Cretaceous Invertebrate Fossils of Texas: Bull. Q-eol. Survey Texas, No. 4,

1889, p. 4. 

Gryplicva pitcheri Heilprin (not Morton). Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., 1890,

p. 452. 

Gryphcea gibberosa Cragin. A Contribiition to the Paleontology of the Texas

Cretaceous: Ann. Rept. Geol. Survey Texas, Austin, June, 1893, pp. 189-190,

PL XXX, figs. 1 and 2.
60 LOWER CRETACEOUS GRYPH2EAS OF TEXAS REGION. [BULL.ISI.

The outline of the adult upper valve is elliptical, with a wing protruding on the dorsal side and truncated anteriorly at the hinge line. 

It is rather deeply concave. The nepionic stage is usually very distinctly marked on the adult valve. The surface in the stages succeeding the nepionic is rather rough, but the lines of growth are 

delicate. The valve is thin; the dorsal sinus is well marked. The . size of a normal adult is: length, 31 mm.; width, 25 mm.; width of 

cartilage pit, 8 mm.; length of cartilage pit, 4 mm. The cartilage pit 

is slightly inclined posteriorly that is, a line running from the base 

of the cartilage pit to the apex, or where the prodissoconch should be, 

would have its tipper portion inclined toward the posterior margin of 

the shell. The margins in the posterior part are rather sharp and 

turned up abruptly; in 'the anterior portion they are considerably 

thickened, the thickening being much greater on the ventral than on 

the dorsal side. The muscular impression is faint.

The lower valve of this species usually has a strongly developed 

dorsal wing and a considerably developed ventral wing. On account 

of the strong development of the wings in this species, Mr. Hill has 

bBen inclined to class it differently from the others of our Lower Cretaceous Gryphseas. The shell is deeply excavated; the lines of growth 

are usually rather fine, and the shell is thin. The beak is strongly 

incurved and the cartilage pit rather deep. The muscular impression 

is only moderately distinct, being slightly impressed on the anterior 

side and not impressed on the posterior side. The upper valve sits 

in the lower valve for a considerable distance. The size and general 

types of variation of this species are shown in the figures.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE UPPER VALVE.

Prodissoconch. Of this species most excellent material was obtained. In fact, the specimens are so well preserved that the development of the shell can be made out quite as well as if special pains 

had been taken to grow the young forms on glass plates, as Jackson 

did in his study of oysters. The prodissoconch is subcircular, very 

slightly wider anteriorly than posteriorly; the beak is directed posteriorly and is situated near the posterior margin. It is about 5 mm. 

in diameter.

The nepionic. The prodissoconch is followed by the nepionic stage, 

from which it is. sharply marked off. The nepionic growth on the 

anterior side continues parallel to the margin of the prodissoconch for 

a considerable time. On the posterior side it at first makes a slight 

shoulder against the prodissoconch. Ultimately there is a spreading 

out dorsally, that is, posteriorly to the prodissoconch, so as to form a 

slight wing. In the early part of the nepionic stage the lines of growth 

are subcircular or semicircular; as the shell grows older they assume 

a more elliptical outline. The completed nepionic is elliptical, being
) vTuoHA.N.] DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES. 61

1 truncated on the anterior margin. Its size is about 9 mm. long by 7

mm. wide. The surface is smooth. In the older part of the stage

tf the valve begins to be concave externally. The nepionic stage is

marked off from the neanic by the concavity increasing rapidly. The

- ; dorsal side of the valve is bent more than the ventral. A dorsal

£ sinus is.very slightly indicated and the surface becomes rather rough

; from the failure of each succeeding layer of growth to cover to the

margin the preceding one. The layers of growth turn up a little at

* the close of their secretion. As each succeeding layer of growth grows 

in a general way parallel to the valve, these little margins are left 

standing up.

Ji THE LOWER VALVE. 

' I Prodissoconch. It is rather phenomenal to find the prodissoconuh 

of the lower valve of a fossil oyster well enough preserved to be 

Studied. In the species under consideration, although the prodissoconch was not well preserved, enough was left to make out its chief

.. features, which coincide with what

V . , ,. ,, j. Prodissoconch is known of all other species of car 

oysters; that is, it is subelliptical oorsai u .._. 

or suboval, with the umbones

 ^ directed posteriorly and sharply

marked off from the succeeding Hypophysis

nepionic. Ventral tatera/ teeth 

The nepionic. The -nepioniC FJG.I- Hinge of lower valve of G, w&shitaenstage is characterized in this spe- stX nepionic stage"

*i cies, as. in the others, by having a rather flat method of growth. Its 

, surface is smooth; the lines of growth at first are subcircular in form,, 

being truncated along the hinge margin, and gradually become moreelliptical. On the ventral side the margin is gently curved, whereas 

j on the dorsal side, even at this early stage, a slight wing is developed. 

Jj The margins in the anterior portion are crenulated. The posterior 

:, portion is fiat, rather wide; the muscular impression is rather distinct 

| and has an irregularly quadrangular shape, being somewhat square on 

\ the interior ventral side, rounded on the anterior dorsal side, with a 

| short truncation on the posterior side. Along the hinge line ventral 

i to the cartilage pit are apparently two lateral teeth. Dorsal to the 

, cartilage pit are four very narrow lateral teeth; in the posterior porfV tion of the cartilage pit is a small hypophysis. Just interior to the 

dorsal lateral teeth and subparallel to the margin of the shell are 

crenulations.

*" Neanic stage. Succeeding the nepionic stage the curvature of the

valve becomes abrupt and the neanic growth is almost at right angles

to the nepionic. For a considerable time after the close of the nepiA onic stage there are no lateral wings developed, and we should define

the neanic stage as that included between the close of the nepionic
62 LOWER CKETACEOQS GRVPH^AS OF TEXAS REGION. [BULL. 151.

and that when the dorsal wing begins to be developed to such a large 

extent.

The adult or ephebic stage was described before discussing the 

development.

G-erontic stage. Tn this stage the shell is gibbous, very thick, and 

has'lost its lateral wings. To a form representing this stage Professor Cragin has given the name G. gibberosa.

Phylogeny. This species presents an enormous amount of variation. In some the lateral wings are very much developed; in other 

specimens they are but slightty developed, and we have noticed the 

peculiar type of the neanic growth. This neanic stage corresponds 

almost precisely to the characters of the adult G. corrugata. In the 

collections from Duck Creek, near Denison, it is almost impossible to 

separate G. washitaensis from G. corrugata, and it seems that the 

two species there grade into each other. From the intergradation of 

the two species and from the neanic stage of G. washitaensis, representing the adult of G. corrugata, there seems to be no doubt that 

G. ivashitaensis is a direct descendant of G. corrugata.

The hemera of G. washitaensis is from the top of the Kiamitia 

clays, through the Duck Creek and Fort Worth into the base of the 

Denison beds, reaching its greatest development in the agglomerates 

near the base of the latter. It is a fossil which in its greatest development occupies a stratigraphic position above the horizon of G. corrugata, and G. corrugata reaches its greatest development in beds 

stratigraphically below G. washitaensis. From these facts it seems 

that G. washitaensis of the middle and upper portion of the Washita 

of Texas is a direct descendant of G. corrugata, which became 

extinct in the lower Washita.

Geologic occurrence and.geographic distribution. Gryphma washitaensis is characteristic of the medial portion of the Washita division, making its first appearance at the contact of the Kiamitia and 

Duck Creek beds, where it is relatively sparsely represented, and 

attaining its maximum numerical development in the great sheets of 

Oryphsea near the contact of the Fort Worth and Denison beds, in 

the basal portion of the latter. These agglomerates of Gryphcea 

washitaensis can be traced from Denison, on Red River, to Austin, a 

distance of nearly 300 miles, constituting a unique formation. They 

are usually, if not always, closely associated with Ostrea (Alectryonia) carinata Lam. The latter does not occur in large numbers, however. This bed is well exposed in the northern suburbs of Denison, 

near the cemetery, in the railway cuts in the suburbs of Fort Worth, 

and in the railway cuts of West Austin. G. washitaensis is also 

very abundant in the pass of the Rio Grande west of El Paso.
BILL AND 

VAUOHAN:°] DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES. 63

GRYPHJEA MUCRONATA Gabb.

Pis. XXIV, XXV, XXVI, XXVII, XXVIII, XXIX, and XXX.

Gryphceapitcheri Roemer (notMorton). Texas rait besonderer Riicksicht, etc.,

Bonn, 1849, pp. 394-395. 

Gryphcea pitcheri .Roemer. Die Kreidebild. von Texas und ihre organ. Einchl.,

Bonn, 1852, pp. 73-74, PI. IX, fig. la, b, c. 

Gryphcea pitcheri var. navia (in part) Hall. Rept. Expl. and Surv. R. R. from

Miss. River to Pacific, Vol. Ill, 1856, Pt. IV, p. 100. 

Gryphcea pitcherivar. navia, Conrad (in part). Rept. Mex. Bound. Survey, Pt. II,

1857, p. 155. 

Gi^yphcea pitcheri Owen (not Morton). Second Rept. Geol. Surv. Arkansas,

Phila., 1860, pi. 7, fig. 6. 

Gryphcea mucronata Gabb sp. nov. Geol. Surv. California, Paleontology, vol. 2,

Philadelphia, 1869, pp. 274-275. 

Ostrea pitcheri Coquand (in part). Mon. du Genre Ostrea Terr. O6tace, 1869,

p. 40, PI. IX, figs. 9-12. 

Gryphcea navia (Conrad in part). White, Fourth Ann. Rept. U. S. Geol. Survey,

1884, p. 302, PI. XLIX, figs. 3, 4, 5, and 6.

Upper valve. Form usually elongate oval, generally thick, frequently much thickened along the margins in the anterior portion, 

especially on the ventral side. Size indicated on plate.

Lower valve. Owing to the varying size of the attached area the 

form of the shell is very variable. The typical form is naviate, with 

a sharp, constricted, much incurved beak. The shell is massive, very 

much thickened in the anterior portion, and the lines of growth are 

very coarse. The dorsal sinus is distinctly marked.

The general characters of this species and its development correspond very closely with G-ryphwa marcoui. It can be distinguished 

by the following characters: In the first place, it is a larger shell than 

Gryrjhcea marcoui. In the second place, the region of the beak is 

not quite so much constricted; the dorsal sinus is indicated at a considerably earlier stage. The lines of growth are much coarser and 

the shell is more ponderous. Another distinction is the great variability of this species, which the figured specimens show.

In a species which presents such enormous variations as the one 

under consideration, it is necessary to try to discover some characters 

which will enable us to recognize it. The method that we have used 

is to get a large suite of specimens, and by careful comparison show 

the intergradation of the forms; but it seems that some characters can 

be discovered which are common to the whole series. One of these 

is, in a general way, the width of the adult valves, which is approximately the same. Another is in the texture of the shell. The lines 

of growth are very coarse, and the successive layers which compose 

the shell are very thick. Although these characters will appear as 

extremely meager, yet of all the specimens of Gryphsea which have 

passed under our notice none present the exact duplicates of what are
64 LOWER CRETACEOUS GRYPILEAS OF TEXAS REGION. [BULL.ISI.

seen in GrypHcea mucronata. We have given figures illustrating the 

principal types of variation found in this species, and it is to be hoped 

that from these' one may be able to recognize the form.

Development of the upper valve. The great variation of this species 

depends to a large extent upon the variation in the size of the attached 

area. Some of the specimens are attached only by a very small area, 

whereas in others the area of attachment is one-fourth to one-third of 

the whole outer surface of the upper valve. This variation in the 

amount of attachment has induced a corresponding variation in the 

shape and method of growth of the upper valve. One specimen 

showed faint indications of the presence of the prodissoconch, but 

these were so faint that an accurate description of the prodissoconch 

is impossible. It can be discovered, however, that the umbones were 

directed posteriorly. The nepionic stage is not A^ery well marked 

off from the succeeding neanic, but in the typical valve that is, one 

in which the area of attachment is small the method of growth is 

elongately elliptical. The lines of growth are not very well marked, 

but with the introduction of the neanic they become much more distinct. The neanic can not be separated from the succeeding ephebic. 

The dorsal sinus does not become very distinct until the shell has 

attained considerable size, and even then sometimes its position can 

be made out only with difficulty. In searching for similar development in other species, we find that it more closely resembles what is 

discovered in G. marcoui, the form being much more like that of the 

latter species, than that of corrugata.

The development oftJie lower valve. In specimens with a wide area 

of attachment not a great deal can be said as to the development. In 

specimens of small areas of attachment the nepionic stage is quite 

distinctly marked, it being rather flat, Avith A^ery slight indications 

of a dorsal wing. The form is rather elongate elliptical, depending 

in shape to a considerable degree upon the extent of,the attached 

area. In the specimens Avlth the small areas of attachment the 

nepionic growth is somewhat marked off from the succeeding growth. 

In a general way the nepionic method of growth is continued far into 

the later life of the rnollusk; that is, the elongate-elliptical outline 

of the lines -of growth continues, but at the close of the nepionic 

stage the curvature of the shell begins. We have also in this species, as Avras noticed in Gryphwa marcoui, the frequent occurrence 

of slight ridges, Avhich radiate from the beak. The dorsal sinus in 

the adult is also distinctly marked. In the adult shell, which has 

a small area of attachment, Ave have a rather narrow and strongly 

incurved beak, always showing at its tip an indication of the point 

of fixation.

Gryphc&a mucronata occurs in greatest abundance in the upper 

portion of the Del Rio (Exogyra arietina) beds and in the base of the 

overlying Shoal Creek limestone from the Brazos soutliAvard to the
BILL

VAUU

AND I 

II.U\. J DESCRIPTION OP SPECIES. 65

Guadalupe. It is well shown in Shoal and Barton creeks, near Austin. 

North of the Colorado it occurs abundantly in the Grayson beds overlying the Main street limestone, as near Handley, a few miles east of 

Fort Worth, and northward toward Red River at Denison. It also 

occurs in the T rans-Pecos region and as far west as Sonora, according 

to Gabb.

I G.mucronata

Ma/n Street

Pawpaw

Mar/etta

G.corrugatd

Duck Creek 

K/amit/a

Edwards 

ComancftePeak

Wa/nut 

G/en ffose

var

G. washitpiensis

Gjcorrugate and G.hiiti

G.marcoui

G. wafer/

Trinity

Pro. 2. Diagram showing the probable evolution of the grypliseas of the Comanche series.

BEI.ATTONSHIP AND EVOLUTION OF THE GKYPIIJEAS.

From the foregoing study of the development, variation, and stratigraphic distribution of the grypha^as, it seems probable that the 

resume of their genetic relationships shown in fig. 2 is correct.

The earliest form found is Gi^yphc&a ivardi of the Glen Rose beds 

Bull. 151 5
66 LOWER CRETACEOUS GRYPH^EAS OF TEXAS REGION. [BULL. 151.

of the Trinity division. From it the G. marcoui of the Walnut clays, 

Comanche Peak limestone, and Edwards limestone was derived by 

direct descent. The beds intervening between the Comanche Peak 

limestone (of the Fredericksburg division) and the Kiamitia clays (at 

the base of the Washita division) have yielded but few specimens of 

Gryphaea, so we have not been able to discover as definite intermediate 

examples between the species occurring in the two beds above mentioned as we desired.

The next Gryphsea to occur after the G. marcoui is the variety of 

G. corrugata called by Cragin G. hilli, found in the Champion shell 

bed of Cragin at the base of the Kiowa shales, and immediately overlying the Cheyenne sandstone, near Belvidere, Kansas. This variety, 

though referable to G-. corrugata, presents many synthetic characters connecting v the Gryphseas of the Washita division with the Gr. 

marcoui of the Fredericksburg. From this variety as a lateral offshoot, the G-. navia of the Kiamitia clays has originated on one 

hand; on the other, and usually occurring above the Gr. navia, the 

large varieties of Gr. corrugata, tucumcarii, and belviderensis.ha.vQ 

arisen. From the larger forms of G. corrugata, as can be shown by 

the direct intergradation of the species, G. loashitaensis was derived 

in the latter part of the time of the deposition of the Kiamitia clays. 

G. corrugata does not range above the Duck Creek chalk, while G. 

washitaensis continues through the Fort Worth limestone into the 

base of the Marietta beds.

In the upper marly layers of the Denison beds at the top of the 

Comanche series G. mucronata appears. This form, although in 

general a more robust species, in some of its varieties is almost a 

reappearance of G. marcoui, and there seems no doubt that it is a 

descendant of the latter form, furnishing an interesting example of 

how a similar or only slightly modified form may reappear after a 

long interval of time, when similar physical conditions recur.
PLATES.

PLATE I
PLATE I.

WAKDI Sp. HOV. (pp. 49-50).

1-5. Upper valves. Fig. 1 enlarged twice; others natural size. 

8-16. Lower valves. All natural size. 

TO
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN NO. 151 PL. I

10

GRYPH/EA WARDI.
PLATE II.
PLATE II. ,

GRYPH^EA MARCOUI sp. nov. (pp. 50-53).

Figs. 1-15. Series of xipper valves, showing the development of the elliptical 

type of valve. Figs. 1 and 2 show small prodissoconchs. Note the 

smooth nepionic stage, succeeding the prodissoconch stage. Fig. 6 

is a young upper valve (p. 51) of the nepionic stage that shows a 

tendency toward an exogyrate growth. Figs. 7-15 show development of the broader type of valve. Figs. 7-11, valves in the nepionic stage. Hgs. 7-9 have parts of the prodissoconchs still attached, 

and the outline thereof is preserved in fig. 7, although the apex is 

worn off.

Figs. 16-24. Young stages of lower valve. Figs. 16,17, and 20 are the nepionic 

stage. Figs. 18 and 19 show the sharp curvature at the close of the 

nepionic and beginning of the neanic stage.

All figures natural size except where otherwise indicated on plate. 

72
U. S- GEOLOGICAL'SUftVEY EULLETIN NO. 151 PL. I

I3

17

18

22

16

ao

GRYPH/EA MARCOUI.
PLATE III.
PLATE III.

GRYPHJEA MARCOUI sp. nov., lower valves (pp. 50-53). 

Figs. 1-4. Types of young valves.

5 and 7-10. Variations of the valves of adults (further shown in figs. 1-4

of Plate IV).

8. Specimens passing into gerontic stage. (See also fig. 1, PI. IV.) 

6, 6 a. Section of a valve. Fig. 6 a enlarged to show method of overlapping of the successive plates.

All natural size. 

74
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN NO. 151 PL. Ill

GRYPH/EA MARCOUI
PLATE IV.
PLATE IV.

GRYPHJEA MARCOUI sp. nov.. adult forms (pp. 50-53).

Figs. 1-3. Specimens showing passage into gerontic stage. Figs. 2 and 3 are

reverse views-of same specimen. 

1, la, 3-7. Lower valves. Figs. 5-7. Views of same specimen.

All figures natural size. 

76
U. C. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN NO. 151 PL. (V

GRYPH^EA MARCOUI.
PLATE Y.

77
PLATE V.

GRYPH.EA MARCOUI sp. nov., adult forms (pp. 50-53). 

Figs. 1,2. Different views of a single specimen.

Figs. 3, 4, 5. A specimen which in its later growth gently flared out, assuming 

a method of growth similar to G. corrugata Say (see pp. 53-57). 

Figs. 6,7. Different views of a specimen from the Edwards limestone.

GrRYPHJSA CORRUGATA Say (pp. 53-o7).

Fig. 8.- Upper valve. Note the early stages of growth. 

All figures natural size. 78 '
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN NO. 151 PL V

GRYPH/EA MARCOUI and G. CCRRUGATA.
PLATE YI.
PLATE VI.

G-RYPH^SA CORRUGATA Say (pp. 53-57).

Figs. 1-4. Young valves, showing the smooth nepionic stage. 

Figs. 5-6. Drawings of casts of Morton's original types of Gryphcea pitcheri. 

The casts were very kindly furnished us by Prof. F. W. Simonds, 

of the University of Texas.

Fig. 7. A copy of Morton's original figure of Gryphcea pitcheri. 

Figs. 8, 9. Two views of same valve. 

All figures natural size. 

80
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

BULLETIN NO. 151 PL. VI

GRYPH/EA CORRUGATA Say.
PLATE VII.

Bull. 1.51 6 81
PLATE VII.

CORRUGATA Say (pp. 53-57). 

Figs. 1-3. Upper valves; natural size. 

8.2
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN NO. 151 PL. VII

GRYPH/EA CORRUGATA Say.
PLATE .VIII.

83
PLATE VIII.

G-RYPH^SA CORRUGATA Say (pp. 55-57). 

Figs. 1-14 represent young specimens.

8-9 (the same specimen), 11, and 13-14 (the same specimen) are of the 

form from Belvidere, Kansas, to which Cragin applied the nair 

Gryphcea hilli. Compare figures 13-14 of this form with the ngu: 

of Morton's type, PI. VI, figs. 5, 6, and 7. 

16-17 represent an abnormal adult individual.

All figures natural size. 

84
U. 8. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN NO. 151 PL. VIII

GRYPH^EA CORRUGATA Say.
PLATE IX.

85
PLATE IX.

GKYPHJEA. CORRUOATA Say. var. BELVIDERENSIS (p. 56).

Figs. 1-8. Adult lower valves from near Belvidere, Kansas.

Natural size. 

86 -
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN NO. 151 PL. IX

GRVPH/EA CORRUGATA Say var. BELVlDERENSIS.
PLATE X.

87
PLATE X.

GRYPHJEA CORRUGATA Say, var. BELVIDERENSIS, maximum size (p. 56).

Figs. 1 and 2. Adult lower valve, two views of the same specimen. Natural 

size.
GRYPH/EA CORRUGATA Say var. BELVIDERENSIS.
PLATE XI.

89
PLATE XT.

GRYPKJEA COKRUGATA Say (p. 56).

Figs. 1, 2. Adult lower valves from Belvidere, Kansas, showing variation.

Natural size. 

90
U. S, GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN NO. 151 PL. XI

GRYPH>EA CORRUGATA Say.
PLATE XII.

91
PLATE XII.

GBYPH^EA COEBUGATA Say (pp. 53-57).

Figs. 1, 2. Adult lower valves from Belvidere, Kansas, showing variation.

Natural size. 

92
U. 8. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN NO. 151 PL. XII

GRYPH/EA CORRUGATA Say.
PLATE XIII.
PLATE XIII.

GRYPHJEA CORRUGATA Say, var. TUCUMCARII (p.-f>6).

Figs. 1-5. Specimens from Tucumcari, New Mexico. Collected by Prof.

Alpheus Hyatt. Natural size. 

94
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN NO. 151 PL. XIII

GRYPH/EA CORRUGATA Say var. TUCUMCARII.
PLATE XIV.
PLATE XIV.

GRYPH^EA CORRUGATA Say, var. TUCUIICARII (p. 56).

Figs. 1.2. From Tucumcari Mesa, New Mexico. Maximum size. Collected

by Prof. Alpheus Hyatt. Natural size. 

96
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN NO. 151 PL. XIV

GRYPH/EA CORRUGATA Say var TUCUMCARII.
PLATE XV.

Bull. 151 7 97
PLATE XV.

GEYPH^EA CORRUGATA Say (pp. 53-57).

Figs. 1-7. Reproduced from figures by Prof. James Hall, described as O. 

pitcheri Morton, in United States Explorations and Surveys for a 

Railroad Route from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, 

Senate Ex. Doc. 78. Vol. Ill, Pt. IV, Geology, Plate I, Washington, 

1856. Figures natural size.
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY lULLETt.N NO. 15T( PL. XV

GRYPH/EA CORRUGATA Say.
PLATE XVI

99
PLATE XVI.

GRYPH.EA CORRUQATA Say (pp. 53-57).

Figs. 1, 2, 3. Copies of specimens figured by Prof. Jules Marcou under name 

of Gryphcea dilatata So.w. (Geology of North America, Zurich, 

1858, Plate IV, figs. 1, la, and 3.) . .

Fig. 4. Copy of figure of Gryphcea pitcheri of Marcou=G. nawaHall. From 

same plate as above.

Figures natural size. 

100
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY lULLETIN NO. 151 PL. XVI

GRYPH/EA CORRUGATA Say = GRYPH>EA PITCHERl Marcou.
PLATE XVII.

101
PLATE XVII.

GRYPH^EA NAVIA Hall (pp. 57-59).

Fig. 1- is a copy of professor Marcou's Ostrea marshii (= O. subovata Shumard). Found in association with G. corrugaia Say in New Mexico, 

Kansas, and Texas.

Figs. 2-4. Oryphcea pitcheri Marcou= G. navia Hall. 

Fig. 5. Gryphcea dilatata, var tucumcarii Marcou.

Copied from figures by Prof. Jules Marcou. Geology of North America, 

-Zurich, 1858, Plate IV. . 

Figures natural size. 

102
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN NO. 151 PL. XVII

GRYPH^EA NAVIA Hall and O. SUBOVATA Shumard.
PLATE XVIII.

103
PLATE XVIII.

GRYPHJEA CORRUGATA Say (pp. 53-57).

Figs. 1-2. A young specimen of G. corrugata Say, for comparison with figures of G. navia Hall.

Fig. 3. A specimen from near Belvidere, Kansas. It appears to be intermediate between G. corrugata and G. navia. Note the slightly developed 

keel. 

GRYPHJEA NAVIA Hall (pp. 57-58).

4. Gryphcea navia Hall, seen from above, to show that the young is like

that of G. corrugata.

Figs. 5-11. Other specimens of G. navia Hall.

Fig. 12. A specimen from near Denison, Texas, that probably should te 

referred to G. navia.

All figures natural size. 

104
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN NO. 151 PL. XVIII

GRYPH/EA NAVIA Hall.
PLATE XIX.

105
PLATE XIX.

GEYPH^BA CORRUGATA Say (pp. 55-57).

Figs. 1-2. Figures of Gryphcea corrugata Say, for comparison with the figures

of O. washitaensis Hill. 

GRYPHJEA WASHITAENSIS Hill (pp. 59-62).

Figs. 3-19. Gryphcea washitaensis Hill. The specimens represented in figs. 

3 and 5 have very little lateral expansion. These specimens come 

from the Duck Creek chalk north of Denison. 

Fig. 4. Gryphcea washitaensis Hill, ordinary adult lower valve.

6. Prodissoconch and a little of the succeeding nepionic growth of Ostrea

virginica Ginel., enlarged (after Jackson). 

Figs. 7-9. Young upper valves of Gryphcea washitaensis, showing the prodissoconchs. 

10-13. Illustrating the nepionic stage of the upper valves of G. ivashitaensis. 

Fig. 14. The prodissoconch and a part of the nepionic growth of the same

specimen represented in fig. 9, much enlarged.

Figs. 15-18. Upper valves of G. washitaensis.. Note the distinctness with 

which the nepionic stage is marked off from the later growth. Fig. 

16 is a reverse view of the specimen represented in fig. 15. Figs. 

17-18 are two views of the same valve. Note the thickening on the 

ventral side in the anterior portion.

Fig. 19. Gryphcea washitaensis. The upper valve is still attached to the 

lower.

All figures are natural size except when otherwise indicated on' 

plate. 

106
U. 8. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN NO. 151 PL. XIX

GRYPHXEA CORRUGATA Say and G WASHITAENSIS Hill
PLATE XX.

107
PLATE XX.

WASHITAENSIS Hill, lower valves (pp. 59-62). 

Figs. 1-2. Twoviewsof a young valve, showing the prodissoconch still attached. 

Note the presence of a few taxodont teeth on the dorsal side of the 

ligamental fossa in fig. 2. 

3-8. Usual varieties. 

9-10. Old forms, passing into the gerontic stage.

108
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN NO. 151 PL. XX

GRYPH/EA WASHITAENSIS Hill.
PLATE XXI.

109
PLATE XXI.

GRYPH.EA WASHITAENSIS Hill (pp 59-62).

Old form showing maximum development; natural size. 

110
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BUILFTIN NO. 151 PL. XXI

GRYPH/ A WASHITAENSIS Hill.
PLATE XXII.

ill
PLATE XXII.

GrRYPHJEA WASHITAENSIS Hill (pp. 59-62).

An old form, showing maximum development; two views of the same valve. 

Natural size.

112
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN NO. 151 PL. XXII

GRYPH/EA WASHITAENSIS Hill.
PLATE XXIII.

Bull. 151 8 113
PLATE XXIII.

WASHITAENSIS Hill (pp. 59-62). 

Figs. 1-2. A very old specimen of Gryphcea washitaensis, Hill; illustrates the 

extreme of the gerontic stage. This is the form called Gmjplicea 

 gibberosa by Cragin. 

3. Section through a very old specimen of G. wasliitaensis.

MUCRONATA Gabb (pp. 63-65).

Figs. 4-10. Upper valves of G. mucronata Gabb. Note the nepionic stage in

figs. 4, 6, and 7. 

114
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN NO. 151 PL. XXIII

GRYPHXEA WASHITAENSIS HIH and G. MUCRONATA
\

PLATE XXIV.

115
PLATE XXIV.

G-RYPH^EA MUCRONATA Gabb, stages of development (pp. 63-65).

Figs. 1-6. Adult tipper valves. Note the great thickening along the ventral

margin in fig. Qa.

7-8. Two views of the same specimen (young). 

9-10. Two views of the same specimen (young). 

11-16. Young lower valves.

All figures natural size. 

116
U. S. GEOL03ICAL SURVEY BULLETIN NO. 151 PL. XXIV

GRYPH/EA MUCRONATA Gabb.
PLATE XXY.
PLATE XXV.

GRYPH^EA MUCRONATA Grabb, lower valves (pp. 63-65); natural size.

118
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN NO. 131 PL. XXV
PLATE XXVI.

119
- PLATE XXVI.

MUGRONATA Gabb (pp. 63-65). 

Figs. 1-3. Copies of Roemer's original figures of what he called G. pitclieri. 

4-5. Clusters; the shells much distorted by their fixed condition of 

growth.

Figures natural size. 

120
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN NO. 151 PL XXVI

GRYPH/EA MUCRONATA Gabb.
PLATE XXVII.

121
PLATE XXVII.

MUCRONATA Gabb. Elongate forms. 

Figs. 1-5, together with all figures on Plates XXVIII-XXX, are intended to 

show the great variation in this species. All specimens from a 

single locality in the bluffs of Shoal Creek at Austin, Texas. Figures natural size. 

122
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN NO. 151 PL. XXVII

GRYPH/EA MUCRONATA Gabb.
PLATE XXVIII.

123
PLATE XXVIII.

GRYPHJEA MUCRONATA Gabb (pp. 63-65). 

Figs. 1-5. Normal forms; natural size. 

124
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

BULLETIN NO. 151 FL XXVIII

GRYPH/£A MUCRONATA Gabb.
PLATE XXIX.

125
PLATE XXIX.

GRYPHJEA MTJCRONATA Gabb (pp. 63-65). 

Figs. 1-6. Triangular forms; natural size. 

126
U, S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN NO, 151 PL. XXIX

GRYPH^EA MUCRONATA Gabb.
PLATE XXX.

127
PLATE XXX

GRYPHJSA MUCRONATA Gabb (pp. 63-65). 

Figs. 1-5. Attached forms; natural size. 

128

c
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN MO. 151 PL. XXX

GRYPH/EA MUCRONATA Gabb.
PLATE XXXI.

Bull. 151 9 129
PLATE XXXI.

View of a bed of living oysters 5 miles below Brunswick, Georgia; from a

photograph by C. D. Walcott. 

130
I). S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 

BED OF OYSTERS kOSTREA VIRGIN
PLATE XXXII.

131
PLATE XXXII.

Columnar section near Denison, Texas, showing stratigraphic occurrence of

the fossil Ostreidae in the Comanche series. 

132
TRINITY

FREDERICKSBURG 

D I V I S I O N DIVISION W
PLATE XXXIII.

133
PLATE XXXIII.

Columnar section near Fort WortH, Texas, showing stratigraphic occurrence

of fossil Ostreidae in the Cornanche series. 

134
FREDERICKSBURG DIVISION

Preston Beds

W A H I
PLATE XXXIV.

135
PLATE XXXIV.

Columnar section near Weatherford, Texas, showing occurrence of fossil 

Ostreidee. This is the downward continuation of the section shown 

on Plate XXXIII. 

13G
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN NO. 151 PL. XXXIV

/I'lMM'r Gyphaea maroouil /'j' ('.i'.'.

and E.texana ^ ' > * > '

O.crenulimargo i^^S^^^-Bv 

^SSf^-^iti e^Tjjip.-ili'v 'i'^FSLii^' 

(;5^§S?S£i 

 H.!:i/ri:,-.:i5fe:; 

il-.^.'T.V-iS7'.'

O.franKlini

PALEOZOIC

Carboniferous)

COLUMNAR SECTION NEAR WEATHERFORD, TEXAS.
PLATE XXXV.

137
PLATE XXXV.

Table of columnar sections across the State of Texas and in New Mexico and 

Kansas, showing the vertical range and position of the Cretaceous 

Ostreidas. Scale: 1 inch=400 feet. 

138
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

BULLETIN NO. 151 PL. XXXV

Trans-,Pecos

Generalized

Section

1___L

Kent & Paso

W

\-

\ 

\

\.~G.corrugata

G.najf!a. 

f.plera

"jay* \V- S«

Ctccurt/gata 

'.' '\y'fl. subovata

Red River

ftWorth

Waco

Aust/n

ft/'o Grantfe

\_ (O. corf ex 

 (Ccostata

.O.tecticosta 

;lE.pnncferosa

G.au.cella

fecostafa 

-\ 6. v»sicularia 

(p./arva

O.panda. -

- Eponcfesosa 

\ .dplumoaa

. laet/fusculu 

.. .O.cti/tiv/ana

. 

E^rfetfna

fw-____J^ .G.n-asfirtaensis

\ £.texana

rC. wasttitaensis 

\E.anr>ericana

O.munsoni

£.texana 

~Ti G.marcoo!i

\-

J_. O.ftank/it.

O-owenana

..O.planovata

ef

dtugutlns , ' 

O. congesta

cp

.Zcostata 

G.vesicutariB

..Efoncterasa

Q./t/gitt>ris 

O.conges*a

xf

O.soleniscus

PP C3.pervefs.3~

Qcerinata' 

G. tvashitaensls

cp

£.texo. gjnan

M

(O. larva 

 \G.ves!cutaf 

[e.costata

.E.ponderosa

ef

O.franklini

(O.Mgutiffs 

\Q.congesta

EXPLANATION OF SYMBOLS.

UPPEH CRETACEOUS:

Undifferentiated beds of upper division..... ...... M

Taylor marls ..................... .. ......... .... ta

Austin chalk.............................. ......... a

Eagle Ford clays ........... ............... ....... ef

Dakota (Eastern Cross Timbers)................... d

LOWER CRETACEOUS:

Woshita division (in general) ........... ......... "W

Denison beds (in general) ...................... d

Denison beds of northern section 

Grayson marls... ...................... gr

Main street limestone............. ..... ms

Paw Paw formation.................... pp

Denison beds of southern sectionShoal Creek limestone... .............. sc

Del Rio clays .......................... dr

Fort Worth limestone ......................... fw

i Duck Creek..................... pd

Preston beds { Kiamitia ....................... k

Fredericksburg division (in general) .............. F

Edwards limestone ............................. e

Comanche Peak formation..................... cp

Walnut formation.............................. w

Trinity division (in general)....................... T

Glen Rose beds ................................ g

Basal formations............................... t

(OJyoni

{o.so/eniscos

Ip.car/ca

f_G.mucmnata

.O.quacftiplicata

.O.car!nata ** 

vashitaensis

--G.corrugata

~ ~ ~ "

\ \.Q.crenulimargo

O.'franktfn

400 800 

VERTICAL' SCALE

1200 FEET

Tucumcan\N.M.

Belv/dere^Ks.

jGc ! \ O. 

L \O.3

Red Beds

.suiio°ata - - i i£at& \

OJ>OU'\ W

jS.corruffata, 

{Q.navta

fled Beds

TABLE OF COLUMNAR SECTIONS SHOWING VERTICAL RANGE AND POSITION OF THE CRETACEOUS OSTREIDyt.
INDEX.

Page. 

Alectryonia, table showing stratigraphic

occurrence of........................... 31

Bayle, cited ................................ 25

Blake, W. P., cited ......................... 14.36

Catliu, George, cited........................ 23-24

Conrad,T.A.,cited...................... 39,41,43

Cragin.F.W.,cited........................ 38,42

Dana, J.D.,cited ........................... 15

De Blainville, cited......................... 27

De Loriol, P. de, cited ...................... 44

Denison, Texas, columnar section near..... li$2

Exogyra, classification of................... 26-27

list of accepted species of.............. 29

table showing stratigraphic occurrence 

of.................................... :tl

Fischer, Paul, cited ........................ 27

Fort Worth, Texas, columnar section near.. 134 

Gabb, W. M., cited.................... 22,39-40,41

t Gryphsea, classification of.................. 27-28

description of species of................ 49-65

list of accepted species of............... 29-30

table showing stratigraphic occurrence 

of..................................... 31

Gryphaja corrngata Say, description of...... 53-57

figures of.... 78,80,82,84,90,92,98,100,104,106

history of discovery of....'............. 33-34

Gryphma cprrugata Say var. belvidereusis,

figures of............................. 80,88

Gryphiea, corrugata Say var. tncumcarii,

figures of............................. 94,96

Gryphsea marcoui, description of ........... 50-53

figures of......................... 72,74,76,78

Gryphma mucronata Gabb, description of .. 63-65 

figures of..... 114.116,118,120,122,124,120,128

Gryphaja navia Hall, description of ........ 57-59

figures of............................. 102,104

Gryphnca pitcheri, aid in well drilling furnished by occurrence of .............. 13

controversy concerning ................ 13-23

differentiation and nomenclature of 

forms named......................... 38-42

list of forms named..................... 45-46

Gryphaja pitcheri of Blake, history of..... 36

Gryphaja pitcheri of Hall, history of....... U6-37

Gryphaja pitcheri of Heilprin, history of .. 37 

Gryphaja pitcheri of Marcou. history of ... 3">-3(i

Page.

Gryphtoa pitcheri of Morton, history of ... 34-35 

Gryphaja pitcheri of Koemer, history of.... 35

Grypbtcarpitcheri of Schiel, history of .... 36

Gryphaja pitcheri var. hilli Cragin, history

of.................................... 38

Gry pluea wardi, description of............. 49-50

figures of............................... 70

Gryphaea wasliitaeusis Hill, description of. 59-62

figures of................. 106,108,110,112,114

Gry phfleas of the Lower Cretaceous of Texas,

evolution and classification of.. 46-48,65-66 

geographic and stratigraphic distribution of................................ 43-46

Hall, James, cited ..................... 36,37,38,39

Hilgard.E.W., cited ....................... 44

Hill, R. T., cited ......................... 33, 41, 44

Heilpriu, Angelo, cited..................... 37

Hyatt, Alpheus, cited ...................... 20-21

Jackson, 11. T., cited........................ 47

James, Edwin, cited........................ 33

Marcou, Jules, cited... 14,15,16, 23,35,36, 37,40,44 

geologic and paleoutologic controversies of................................ 13-23

Meek, F. B., cited........................... 28

Morton, S. G., description of Gryphaja

pitcheri by........................... i)5

Nuttall, Thomas, cited ..................... 33-34

Ostrea, classification of..................... 20

list of accepted species of .............. 28-29

table showing stratigraphic occurrence 

of.................................... 31

Ostreidaj, abandoned species of............. 30

accepted species* of...................... 28-30

classification of........................ 24-32

occurrence in Texas of deposits containing................................... 23-24

Koemer, Ferdinand, cited................ 22, 35,44

Say, Thomas, cited ......................... 54

Schiel, cited................................ ^ 30

Simonds, F. W., aid by...................... 23

Stanton, T. W., cited ....................... 17,41

acknowledgments to ................... 34

Vaughan, T. W., cited ...................... 44

Weatherford, Texas, columnar section, near 136 

White. C. A., cited ......................... 36,43

Whitfield.R.P.,cited ...................... 44

139