Pvn H,i I'UitlS

308 CYPRINID.E.
Fossil Shells/ from a supposition that the Icelandic
shell was not the same as ours.
Genus III. ASTAB/TE * J. Sowerby. PL VI. f. 3.
Body suborbicular, compressed : mantle rather thick ; edge
plain : foot rather small but strong,
and conical.
Shell more or less triangular, compressed, concentrically
furrowed (especially in the young) or striated : epidermis yellowish
or chestnut-brown, sometimes rayed, and usually thick
and fibrous : beaks prominent, slightly recurved : lunule dis-
tinct, heart-shaped, or lanceolate : corselet elongated : ligament
mostly external : teeth, in each valve three cardinals, the outer
one of which on the posterior side in the right valve, and that on
the anterior side in the left valve, are small and indistinct ;
laterals ridge-like and slight, one on either side in each valve.
Brocchi in 1814 pointed out the peculiar character-
istics of this genus, and provisionally associated the only
species then known with Capsa. The author of '
The
Mineral Conchology of Great Britain/ Schumacher, and
Lamarck gave it in 1816, 1817, and 1818 the several
names of Astarte, Tridonta, and Crassina. This shows
the order of their relative priority; and although Sow-
erby comprised in his genus species
long to it, viz. Venus Paphia, V. fasciata,
which do not be-
and V. sub-
cordata, he distinctly stated that A. sulcata was the
type. Lamarck placed A. sulcata and A. castanea in
Venus. The late Mr. G. B. Sowerby first noticed the
relation of Astarte to Cyprina. Scacchi and Philippi
considered the animal allied to Cardita. C. F. Romer
published in 1842 an elaborate treatise on the genus ;
and De la Jonkaire had previously given a monograph
of the fossil species.
* The Phoenician goddess of the Moon, or (according to Cicero) a
synonym
of Venus.