Part II - State of New Jersey

116 CIIETSCEOUS FOSSILSBaculites asper hlorton. Herriek and Johnson, 1900, Denison Univ. Sei.Lab. Bull., vol. 11, p. 213.Bact~lites asper Morton. Lasswitz, 1904, Geol. Palaeont. Ahh., n. ser.,.Bd. 6, Heft 4, p. 15.Baculites asper Morton? (part?). Weller, 1907, p. 823: PI. 109, figs.6-7Baclilitcs asper Morton. Gardner, 1916, p. 383.Baculites asper Morton. Adkins, 1928, Univ. Texas E:ull. 2836, p. 206.Description.-This species is best characterized 11y its small size,broad-orate eross section, small taper of the shell, and its orntunentation-widelyspaced round nodes on the antisiphonal half of the flanksand numerous weak undulations on the siphonal side that hare onlythe faintest conneet,ion mith the nodes. Forms of large size and mitharcuate nodes, even though distant, n:irrowly ovate or suhtriangularin eross section, belong to other species. As is usual with ammonites, itgrades toward other species in that in some specinlens the nodes tendto show a degree of areuation, and in ot.her specimens the cross sectionis subcircular or tends to show a flattening of the antisiphonal sirle.Remarks.-Morton in 1833 cited only "Alabama" as ti locality, butin 1834 he wrote that the species "was discoverer1 by Xr. Nuttall atCahawba and more recently hy Mr. Conrad at Prairie Bluff." Thesmaller of the two specimens fi~ired in 1834 (pl. 1, figs. 13-14) is stillavailable and is accompanied by a label in Rforton's handwriting thatstates the locality as Prairie Bluff. This locality would place the horizonin the Prairie Bluff chalk, but that unit is definitely higher thanthe levels now assigned to 13. asper in the region and elst:mhere and hasnot yielded the species in more recent eollect,ions. On the ot,her hand,the locality at Caha~vba should 1)c in thc lower part of the Sclma chalk,which with the Tombigbee sand memher has yielded the species at manylocalities and includes horizons equivalent to those that have yieldedB. asper elsewhere. The evidence seems 1.0 support the judgment thatConrad's assignment, accepted by Iforton, is erroneous.The specimen from the Navesink marl illustratecl by Whitfield andby Weller as B. asper obviously does not belong to the species. Wellerrer~orts, but unfortunately does not illustrate, a specimen from theCliffwood clay (now Rlagothy formation) 10 mm. in diameter "eharacterizedby somewhat eonspieuous node-like inflations of t,he sides ofshell" that may belong to B. aspor. At the horizon statecl, such anidentity seems highly probable, though the writer has not seen the specimen,and a donht must remain. The species is n,idcly rlistrihuted in middleUpper Cretaceous deposits (Coniacian, Santonian, early Cnmpt~nian).Range in New Jerscy-MAGOTHY: Cliffwood Point.NEW JERSEY GEOLOGICAL SURVEY