In Part One, we saw how Audubon bit his lip and said nothing when
Rafinesque destroyed his violin while trying to capture bats ("a new
species!") as a guest in Audubon's house in 1817. Biding his time, the
provoked host mischievously gave his guest sketches of a fantastic trivalve
animal from the Ohio River, and the species-happy naturalist gratefully
published them.
This continuation of the story was made possible by the help of Tom
Watters (Aquatic Ecology Laboratory, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio)
and Kevin Cummings (Illinois Natural History Survey, Champaign, Illinois)
who kindly sent me photocopies of the relevant, excessively rare articles
by Rafinesque. As the text of these articles is not widely known to modern
conchologists despite their notoriety, I will quote the relevant passages
in full. Italicized phrases are marked with asterisks (*).
The year is 1817. Rafinesque has just left Audubon's house after a
five-week visit without a word to anyone. The Audubon family has been
frantically scouting the nearby woods and creeks for Rafinesque's body.
Eventually a letter arrives from the wayward naturalist, thanking them for
their hospitality. Rafinesque is in a paroxysm of writing articles, trying
to name as many new taxa as possible from the American frontier. And in
1818, only a few months after his sojourn with Audubon and his family, the
American Monthly Magazine and Critical Review published a brief article in
which, against common sense, the naturalist proposed a new species, genus,
and subfamily of trivalve brachiopods:
"There is a small family of bivalve shells, which have received the names
of Brachiopodes, distinguished by having tentacula. It contained, in my
Analysis of Nature and in Cuvier's Regne Animal, only three genera,
*lingicula, orbicula* and *terebratula,* all maritime; this last, which is
very numerous, particularly in fossil species, has lately been divided by
Sowerby, who has established the genera *Productus* and *Spirifer;* and I
have added another fossil genus, *Apleurotis,* distinguished from it by
elongated, obliquated, and auriculated on one side only, in a memoir
presented to the Academy of National [Natural] Sciences of Philadelphia.
"In my travels on the Ohio, I have ascertained another genus belonging to
that family, which is very similar to the genus *Orbicula;* but it is
fluviatile, and the larger or upper valve is perforated in the middle as in
*Fissurella,* and operculated. I have not seen the living animal myself;
but Mr. Audubon of Hendersonville, a zealous observer, has drawn it, and it
appears to have a head with two eyes and no tentacula jutting out of the
perforation. It would therefore deviate from the character of the family;
it may, probably, at a future period become the type of another; but the
shell is so very similar to *Orbicula* that I unite them now, proposing
however for it a sub-family, under the name of *Notremidia,* which may
become the family name when other similar genera have been detected.
"*Description*.--NOTREMA. Generic character. Fluviatile bivalve shell,
inequivalve; upper valve larger, nearly round, perforated in the middle,
opening operculated: lower valve lateral very small inequilateral. Body
flat beneath, head in the centre above, retractible, jutting out through
the perforation, with two lateral eyes, no tentacula. The generic name
means *opening in the back,* in Greek.
"*Notrema fissurella*. Specific character. Upper valve convex with
circular wrinkles, and oblique transverse furrows: lower valve flat obovate
and smooth; shell fulvous brown, opening round, operculum round, brown, and
shining, heed truncate.
*Obs.* It is found on the rocks of the bottom of the river Ohio, from the
falls to the mouth; it is rare; diameter about one inch; it holds on wrecks
as the *Patellas* do, and might be mistaken for one at first; the operculum
has a hinge, when the animal wants to protrude the head, it opens it as a
valve. This shell might, perhaps, be deemed trivalve on that account."
Poor Rafinesque! No one let him in on the joke. In 1820, he renamed the
trivalve *Tremesia* ("little hole"), having realized that the name
*Notrema* was already in use for another genus. This time, he wrote in his
monograph on the freshwater mussels of the Ohio River (p. 54):
"Je vais décrire dans ce supplément deux espèces qui n'appartiennent
qu'imparfaitement à mon sujet; car l'une est une coquille trivalve et
l'autre une moule de la Louisiane. J'y ajouterai quelques espèces qui ont
été omises à leurs places respectives, ou reconnues durant mon travail.
"XIIe. Genre. *TREMESIA*. Trémésie.
"Test trivalve, inéquivalve; valve principale patelloïde, perforée au
centre; la petite valve fermant ce trou en guise d'opercule; troisième
valve inférieure, latérale; molluscque céphalé, à tête extensible par
l'ouverture médiale, à deux yeux latéraux; point de tentacules.
"Ce genre singulier paraît être le type d'une nouvelle famille
intermédiaire entre les Brachiopodes, les Térédaires et les Patellaires;
elle a trois valves comme les Térédaires; mais une tête comme les
Patellaires, et cette tête oculée et tentaculée est centrale au lieu d'être
terminale.
"64. Espèce. *Tremesia patelloïdes*. Trémésie patelloïde.
Pl. LXXXII, fig. 22, 23 et 24.
"Valve principale arrondie, un peu conique, striée concentriquement et
tesselée par des stries courbes, obliques, transversales; ouverture ronde;
petites valves lisses: l'inférieure oblique, obovale; mollusque strié
flexueusement en dessous, aigu à l'oppose de la valve inférieure; tête
tronquée.
"Animal bien singulier, que j'avais déjà annoncé l'année passée sous le
nom fautif de *Notrema* dans l'*American Monthly Magazine*. il se trouve
dans la parite inférieure de l'Ohio, attaché aux pieres comme les Patelles,
par sa base; test fauve-brun; valve operculaire brune, luisante, mobile;
diamètre environ un pouce, hauteur un demi-pouce."
Translation:
"In this supplement I will describe two species that belong only
imperfectly to my subject, for one is a trivalve shell and the other is a
mussel from Louisiana. I will add here some species that were omitted from
their respective places, or recognized during my work.
"XIIth Genus. *TREMESIA*. Tremesia.
"Shell trivalve, inequivalve; principal valve patelloid, perforated at the
center; small valve opening this hole in the manner of an operculum; third
valve lower, lateral; mollusk headed, with head extensible through a medial
aperture, with two lateral eyes; no tentacles.
"This singular genus appears to be the type of a new family intermediate
among the brachiopods, shipworms and limpets; it has three valves like the
shipworms, but a head like the limpets, and this eyed and tentacled
[tentaculée] head is central instead of being terminal.
"64th Species. *Tremesia patelloides*. Patelloid Tremesia.
"Principal valve round, a little conical, striated concentrically and
tesselated by curved, oblique, transversal striae; aperture round; small
valves smooth: the lower one round, oboval; mollusk striated flexuously
underneath [en dessous], sharply against [aigu à l'oppose] the lower valve;
head truncated.
"A quite unique animal, which I already announced last year under the name
of *Notrema* in the *American Monthly Magazine*. It is found in the lower
part of the Ohio, attached to stones like the limpets, for its base; shell
tawny brown; opercular valve brown, glossy, mobile; diameter about an inch,
height one half-inch."
Did Rafinesque ever learn that he had been had? History does not say. In a
"continuation" of his Ohio River monograph (1831), he described more taxa,
but made no mention of the mysterious trivalve.
By this time, Rafinesque was unpopular among his fellow naturalists in
America, and he complained vociferously that they were ignoring his work,
and moreover doing bad science. This was true, but saying so in print did
not help his case; indeed, he was having a hard time finding a journal that
would publish his work, and so had to publish it himself. "Mr. Say is,
above all, inexcusable. I had respectfully noticed, in 1820, his previous
labors; but he has never mentioned mine, and knows so little of the animals
of these shells, as to have mistaken their mouth for their tail, and their
anterior for the posterior part of the shells! If he had seen these animals
alive, feeding, moving, and watched their habits as I have done repeatedly,
he would not have fallen into such a blunder" (p. 1). Rafinesque then
pointed out that he could not afford to buy the other naturalists' works,
which were much costlier than his own, and therefore put off writing the
synonomy of each species until later. But the man died poor, and his
scientific collections were dispersed and lost. In many cases, no one can
recognize his species from the brief, unillustrated diagnosis, and without
type specimens, it is now extraordinarily difficult to untangle the web of
synonyms.
However, we can be quite sure that, if the Ohio River ever gives up a
trivalve brachiopod, we will know what to call it.
Andrew K. Rindsberg
Geological Survey of Alabama
References
Rafinesque, C. S., 1818, Description of a new genus of fluviatile bivalve
shell, of the damily of Brachiopodes; NOTREMA FISSURELLA, *in* Discoveries
in natural history, made during a journey through the Western region of the
United States: American Monthly Magazine and Critical Review, v. 3, p. 356.
Reprinted by Binney, W. G., and Tryon, G. W., Jr., 1864, The complete
writings of Constantine Smaltz Rafinesque, on recent & fossil conchology:
New York, Bailliere Brothers, p. 24-25.
______1820, Monographie des coquilles bivalves fluviatiles de la rivière
Ohio, contenant douze genres et soixante-huit espèces: Annales Générales
des Sciences Physiques, v. 5, no. 15, p. 21-56, pl. 80-82.
______1831, Continuation of a monograph of the bivalve shells of the river
Ohio, and other rivers of the Western states: Philadelphia, privately
published, 8 p.