A revision of the Australian Conulariae
Abstract
The present paper is a revision of the known species of Conularia found in Australian rocks, with descriptions of new species. The actual position in the animal kingdom which this remarkable genus occupies is still doubtful. It has usually been regarded by authors as having pteropod affinities, although opponents to this theory have assigned the genus to many, other groups. Miss Slater, in 1907, revising the British Conulariae, stated that on zoological evidence the inclusion of Conularia among the Pteropods must be abandoned. After an exhaustive examination of their characters, Miss Slater concludes that the genus should be regarded as "an extinct group, equivalent to the Cephalopods, and derived with them from the same simple-shelled ancestor". Members of the genus are found distributed among the European rocks from the Upper Cambrian to the Trias and Lias, with a maximum development in Middle, Upper Ordovician, and Silurian times. In Australian rocks the genus is by no means common. Species have now been recorded from the Cambrian, Upper Silurian, Carboniferous, and Permian rocks. The maximum development is in the Permian horizons, where the shells attained large size, it striking feature common to the Permian fauna of Australia.
