English: An illustration of Lhuyd's Siphunculus scaber from the figures illustrating the margins of Moll's map of Northamptonshire, sold separately and as Map 25 in his Set of Fifty New and Correct Maps of England and Wales...

The fossilized worm and shell are miscaptioned by Moll as "A Vertebra, or single Joint of the Back-Bone of a large Fish. Tis Two Inches & half in length, and near as much in Breadth. Digg'd up at Peakirk almost 4 Foot deep in the Earth."

Peakirk is now within Cambridgeshire. The illustration is a duplicate of Figure 1 in Table 10 of John Morton's 1712 Natural History of Northampton-shire, whose description reads "86. From the Sea-shells that are regularly Wreath'd or Turbinated, I proceed to the Tubuli marini vermiculares, many of which are Wreath'd, but not regularly; both the Fashion and Number of their Convolutions being various and inconstant. The Wreathed Sorts of the Tubuli Vermiculares are small, hollow, Pipe-like Shells, that in Bigness: in External Form: and in the Inconstancy of their Convolutions, do resemble Worms; but in Substance do not differ from other Sea-shells. Whensoever they are regularly convoluted, 'tis accidental. The several Sorts of them are as follows.

"(1.) That of the largest Size, about as thick as the little Finger; agreeing with the Siphunculus Scaber, &c. Lh. N. 1201. Only this of ours is generally smooth. For the most part it advances gradually from a slenderer to a thicker Ending: and is found filled with Stone. It occurs sometimes in the Stone-pits: sometimes in those of Gravel, as at Oxendon: more frequently in the Clayey Fields, at Oxendon, Yelvertoft, and the rest of them. 'Tis often found adhering to the Fossil Shells, particularly those of the Oyster-kind. The Cylindric Tubuli that are found together with it in some Places, by their Guise and Thickness, appear to be only Fragments of this very Sort of Tubulus; tho' this indeed is ordinarily found bending either more or less in every Part of it..."

Lh. N. 1201 (somehow) refers to §1201 in Edward Lhuyd's 1699 Lithophylacii Britannici Ichnographia, which reads "Classis Septima. Fossilia Tubulosa. Capsula XVII. Hujus Sortis adeo pauca quidem sunt ut distinctam classem vix promereri videantur; cum tamen à reliquis quibuscunque toto genere discrepent, non potui quin proprium iis aliqualem loculum assignarem. Qualia autem sint, ex titulo facilè colligitur; nempe conchyliorum, quae apud Zoographos Tubuli, Entales, Dentales, Penicilli audiunt, exemplaria fossilia: quae cùm pauca sint in mari, respectu Bivalvium & Turbinatorum, non mirum si & parcius è terrâ effodiantur. 1201. Siphunculus scaber tortilis, auricularis, ferè digiti crassitie. E fodinis Witneiensibus. Vermiculis Listeri adnumerandus est. Vid. Hist. Concyl. Lib. IV. Sect. 2."

Notes: London: Sold by H. Moll over-against Devereux-Court in the Strand; Tho. Bowles, Print and Map-Seller near the Chapter-House in St. Paul's Church-Yard, and J. Bowles Print and Map-Seller over-against Stocks-Market. 1724.