On the Genotype and Septal Development of the Coral Genus Petraia Münster

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Abstract
No genus of Palaeozoic coral has been so repeatedly misinterpreted as Petraia , and certainly no name has been so often misapplied. The genus was founded by Count G. zu Münster in 1839 (p. 42) for certain fossils from the Orthoceratites Limestones of Elbersreuth and the Clymenia Limestone of the Schübelhammer in the Frankenwald (Bavaria), and placed by him among the gastropoda, near Capulus and Patella , though doubtfully, for he also thought that they might possibly be zoophytes and related to ‘ Cyathophyllum ’. Nevertheless, in 1840 (pp. 82 & 116), he claimed them to be most probably gastropods. On the other hand, W. Lonsdale (1840, explanation of pl. lviii, fig. 6), having seen some of Münster's specimens, recognized Petraia as a coral, an opinion upheld by A. d'Archiac & E. de Verneuil (1842, p. 405), J. Morris (1843, p. 42), H. B. Geinitz (1846, p. 566), H. G. Bronn (1848, p. 949), and F. M'Coy (1849, p. 1). Münster's description, however, was very vague, and no reference was made to the septa; nor were the internal characters of the types known. So it has come about that the name Petraia has been applied by later writers to various Palaeozoic corals ranging from Ordovician to Permian. Because of this confusion, A. d'Orbigny (1850, p. 105), H. M. Edwards & J. Haime (1851, p. 392), F. J. Pictet (1857, p. 455), E. de Fromentel (1858–61, p. 294), and others have entirely dropped the name Petraia and included the species it embraced in the very

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