. Discovery reports. Discovery (Ship); Scientific expeditions; Ocean; Antarctica; Falkland Islands. FAECAL PELLETS FROM MARINE DEPOSITS 23 this ovoid shape of pellet is common to very many kinds of animals, it is probable that the ones found in the deposits represent the faeces of several different species. Smooth rod-shaped pellets with a diameter of up to 0-15 mm. were found abundantly at St. WS 144, and in smaller numbers at St. WS 502. A single specimen of a simply sculptured rod was found at St. 375. It consisted of a rod, circular in section, with a single groove along one side (Fig. i a
. Discovery reports. Discovery (Ship); Scientific expeditions; Ocean; Antarctica; Falkland Islands. FAECAL PELLETS FROM MARINE DEPOSITS 23 this ovoid shape of pellet is common to very many kinds of animals, it is probable that the ones found in the deposits represent the faeces of several different species. Smooth rod-shaped pellets with a diameter of up to 0-15 mm. were found abundantly at St. WS 144, and in smaller numbers at St. WS 502. A single specimen of a simply sculptured rod was found at St. 375. It consisted of a rod, circular in section, with a single groove along one side (Fig. i a). In transverse section it appears to be composed largely of diatom remains, more so in fact than the mud from which it came, or the ovoid pellets found there, so that it must be the pellet of a selective feeder. I would suggest further that it is probably the pellet of a mollusc, although none are at present known of quite this Fig. I. Transverse sections of pellets from marine deposits. a, Pellet of a mollusc ?, from St. 375. b, Pellet of Niiciila sp., from St. WS 144. c, Pellet of Niicida tenuis, from the Clyde. d, Pellet of Niicula moorei, from the Clyde. A second and more complexly sculptured type of rod-shaped pellet was found abundantly at St. WS 144, and consisted of a rod up to o-i6 mm. in diameter with a series of longitudinal grooves on the surface. In transverse section (Fig. i b) this also appeared to be formed almost entirely from diatom remains, and may also therefore be classed as a probable selective feeder. So few pellets have as yet been described that it would be unreasonable to attempt to identify an unknown pellet with any given animal without a considerable knowledge of the fauna of the locality. But this pellet in all respects resembles those at present known for the genus Nucula, and it is at least reasonable to advance the possibility of its belonging to this genus. Nucida pellets are all rods with longitudinal grooves; and all the species whic
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