Hinnita poulsoni Conrad, 1834
CONRAD, T. A. 1834. Description of a new species of Hinnita. Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 7 (1): 182-183 [p. 182, pl. 14]
«HINNITA Poulsoni. Tab. xiv.
Specific character. Shell ovate, with distant prominent radiating striae, having arched scales on each, very numerous and prominent near the base; spaces between the larger striae with close set prominent undulated squamosa lines; color redish brown; inferior valve with concentric laminae, and squamosa on the unattached margin; within whitish, and of a crystalline appearance, and the margin brown; hinge area dark purple; fosset narrow and oblique.
Observations. The genus Hinnita was formed by Defrance, to receive a fossil which he supposed to be intermediate between Spondylus and Ostrea. Several recent species have since been added by authors, and the original name Hinnites altered to Hinnita. Mr. Gray places this interesting group of shells in the family SPONDYLIDAE, but Sowerby refers it to the PECTINIDAE, and thinks it can scarcely claim a generic distinction, and is even doubtful whether it should be separated from Pecten. Two recent species have long been described, and well known by the names of Pecten pusio and P. sinuatus, and the whole group, consisting of at least nine species, recent and fossil, is so natural and striking in its characters, that it cannot be confounded with any other, and will certainly rank among the PECTINIDAE, where Sowerby and Cuvier have placed it. Defrance described the genus as adhering by one valve, which Sowerby believes to be incorrect; but this character is also given it by Cuvier, and certainly the species here described has every appearance of an adhering shell, the surface of the lower valve resembling that of Ostrea parasitica. Indeed, the H. sinuata has been found on the coast of France, attached to a Pecten. Two specimens of this species are in the splendid cabinet of my friend Charles A. Poulson, Esq., who has kindly permitted me to describe it; the largest measures three and a half inches in length and four and a half inches in height. The habitat is unknown to me. It differs much from any species of which I have seen the description; but that of H. Defrancii, of Deshayes, I have not met with. The oblique position of the cartilage fosset is a character which I do not find stated in the description of any other species.» TIMOTHY ABBOT CONRAD, 1834
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T. A. Conrad, 1834, plate 14.
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