Also sphærulite. [f. L. sphærula SPHERULE + -ITE1 2 a and 2 b.]
1. Min. A concretionary substance found in small spherular masses in certain rocks.
1823. W. Phillips, Min. (ed. 3), 209. Sphærulite … occurs in small roundish masses, sometimes aggregated in the botryoidal form.
c. 1840. Encycl. Metrop., VI. 516/1. Sphærulite … occurs in small spheroidal and botryoidal masses imbedded in pearlstone and pitchstone.
1862. Dana, Min., 357. Spherulite is a kind of pearlstone, occurring in small globules in massive pearlstone.
1889. Science-Gossip, XXV. 47. Spherulite and pitchstone from Arran.
b. A spherular concretion of this nature.
1863. Dana, Man. Geol., § 8. 88. [Pearlstone] often contains spherical concretions, called spherulites, which consist of feldspar with an excess of quartz.
1886. Geikie, Class-bk. Geol., 214. In some obsidians, little spherulites of a dull grey enamel-like substance have made their appearance.
2. Palæont. A genus of fossil mollusks.
In early use in L. form Sphærulītēs.
1834. Griffith, trans. Cuvier, XII. 92. Sphærulites,… where the valves are roughened by irregularly raised plates.
1841. H. Miller, O. R. Sandst., viii. 153. The hippurites, sphærulites, and nummulites of the same formations, in Greece, Italy, and Spain.
1847. Ansted, Anc. World, x. 241. One such genus is called Sphærulite…. They seem most nearly allied to the inhabitants of those univalve shells of which the limpet is the present representative.
