Devonian Dentalium martini Whitfield, 1882, is not a mollusk but a worm

U. S. National Museum of Natural History, Department of Paleobiology, Washington, DC, United States

Dentalium martini Whitfield, 1882, is a calcareous worm tube, not a mollusk, and is placed in synonymy of Coleolus crenatocinctum Hall, 1879. The growth of D. martini mimics logarithmic curvature in the holotype, but in other specimens shape varies from irregularly curved to straight. A prime reason for reassignment is variation of the wall thickness around the circumference in D. martini, which in late Paleozoic and Recent scaphopods of the same size is of uniform thickness.

This record provided courtesy of AGI/GeoRef.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				C. P. Palmer, D. W. Boyd, and E. L. Yochelson The Wyoming Jurassic fossil Dentalium subquadratum Meek, 1860 is not a scaphopod but a serpulid worm tube Rocky Mountain Geology, December 1, 2004; 39(2): 85 - 91. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]