Mollusca from the Miocene and lower Pliocene of Virginia and North Carolina, Part 2, Scaphopoda and Gastropoda

Abstract

Introduction: Part 2 of the Systematic Report continues and concludes the study of the Mollusca from the Miocene and lower Pliocene of Virginia and North Carolina. One hundred and nineteen species, only a fraction of the known fauna, are reviewed and 66 additional species are described and figured. (See faunal chart, pp. 180-183.) The report upon the gastropods suffers from the same shortcomings obvious in the work on the pelecypods. Most of the material is from old collections made before the importance of the exact placing of the fossil locality both areally and vertically was recognized. Many of the citations of outcrops are vague and the sections generalized. Detailed field studies, particularly on the zoning of the Yorktown formation in southern Virginia and northern North Carolina, were begun later by Wendell P. Mansfield, but he died in the summer of 1939 before the completion of the work.