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From a long and careful study of the Brachiopoda I am led to offer some observations upon the two recently published papers by Dr. J. Allan Thomson which have appeared in this Magazine. In the case of Dallina I cannot agree with Dr. Thomson regarding the type of folding. He considers D. septigera (the genotype) and D. raphaelis as dorsally biplicate, D. floridana as dorsally uniplicate. Now dorsal biplication is brought about by the dorsal sulcus being superimposed upon a single dorsal fold. In D. septigera, as well as in D. floridana, a broad ventral sulcus is superimposed upon a dominant ventral fold; these two species, therefore, are, in my opinion, ventrally biplicate (as in Magellania flavescens and some others).

In the year 1888 I published a short paper in the pages of the Geological Magazine and in “Nature,” in which I gave a brief account of the discovery of the fauna of the Olenellus (or Lower Cambrian) zone in the Comley or Hollybush Sandstone of Shropshire. Since that date great advances have been made in our knowledge of the Olenellus fauna of other areas, and the Olenellus zone has now generally attained an established rank and systematic position in the Geological Record as the basal zone of the Cambrian system.

In a short paper on the nomenclature of the Old Red Sandstone Fishes published in this Magazine for November, 1888, I expressed the opinion “that the scattered teeth and fragments of jaws known as Dendrodus and Lamnodus belong to fishes at present known to us by their scales as species of Holoptychius and Glyptolepis.” The family terms “Holoptychiidæ” and “Dendrodontidæ” I consider absolutely synonymous. On the other hand, the Rhizodontidæ (Gyroptychius, Tristichopterus, Rhizodus, etc.) present a somewhat different form of tooth-structure, and one which is, in the main, identical with that which, in so many Stegocephalous Amphibia, is called “labyrinthodont.”

Naturalists who refer to their “Baedeker” for information respecting the Continental Natural History Museums are too often disappointed by finding that if the author does happen to have mentioned them, either that he has confined his attention to the exterior of the building or has summarily dismissed the collection as “unimportant.” Hence geologists are dependent upon such, papers as those in which M. Cotteau has recapitulated the principal contents of several French and Swiss Museums, or that in which Mr. Smith Woodward has enumerated the most interesting specimens of many German and Austrian collections. The last paper, as is indicated by its title, “Vertebrate Paleontology in Continental Museums,” is restricted solely to the Vertebrata. But as the value of a Museum, as far as the Invertebrates are concerned, is dependent more on the possession of collections than of single famous specimens, the student of this group is more in need of such information than is the Vertebrate palæontologist; every one knows where he must go to see an Archæopteryx, a mounted Iguanodon, or a Neanderthal skull, but the last resting-place of a local collector's hoard is, as a rule, less known to fame. Hence the following notes may be of some service as a supplement to Mr. S. Woodward's paper.

In the spring of the present year M. Albert Gaudry communicated an interesting paper to the Geological Society of France, on some newly discovered remains of true Batrachia found in the older rocks of that country, and which paper has just been published, with two plates, in their Proceedings. This discovery is paléontologically important; as the author observes that up to the present time no remains of actual typical Batrachia have been found in any rocks of earlier date than the Tertiary Period. It has also been a subject of surprise, that Vertebrates of so low an organization should have appeared so late upon the earth, and this supposed faot has been used as an objection to the theory of progressive development. However, this discovery, he thinks, shows structural characters, such as an evolutionist would expect to find in an ancient rock. The tail very short, the bones of the trunk and limbs resembling those of the Salamanders, whilst on the contrary the bones of the head have the characters of those of the Frog; thus lessening the distance which appears to separate the Urodela from the Anoura. He further remarks, that the incomplete ossification of the centra of the vertebræ, the want of ossification of the epyphyses of the limb bones, and probably, also, the cartilaginous state of the carpals and tarsals, reveal a type of which the evolution is not yet completed.

Mr. Alexander Somervail has been so good as to send me lately a paper read by him before Section C of the British Association at Southport, September, 1903, and printed in the Geological Magazine, Dec. IV, Vol. X, No. 472, October, 1903. The paper contains certain criticisms on the published work of Professor Hull, F.R.S., and myself among the Bed Rocks of the South Devon coast, with especial reference to “ the Base of the Keuper iu South Devon.” I desire to reply here to Mr. Somervail, and in so doing shall have to refer frequently to the three papers of my own published in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society in the years 1888, 1892, 1893, and to the paper by Professor Hull in the same Journal in the year 1892. For the sake of convenience and brevity I will refer to these papers by certain letters, as below.

I have in previous papers given some account of the remarkable Lower Greensand deposit at Upware, and have also described three new species of Terebratulidæ from this locality. Having obtained additional specimens of the rarer forms, and several new species, and having received many valuable suggestions from Mr. Davidson and Mr. Meyer, I propose in the present paper, first to describe some of the new species, then to make a few remarks on the numerous species of Brachiopoda which occur in this deposit, and finally to indicate their distribution in the Lower Greensand deposits of this country.

In two previous papers in this Magazine (Hawkins, 1910 and 1911) I have dealt with some features in the comparative anatomy of the ambulacral and interambulacral areas of the Holectypoida. The only other structure of the test for a comparative study of which sufficient material is available is the apical system. The present paper deals with this structure. I intend to summarize the results of my researches in a scheme for the classification and evolution of the group in a paper already partly prepared.

At the present stage of the controversy, it may seem, to those who have read carefully the paper of M. Marcou in the March Number of this Magazine, that very little remains to be said. Yet, however much it is to be regretted, it must be feared that insular prejudice still finds place with English geologists, and prevents them from seeing so clearly as they otherwise might do the full bearing of the evidence which we possess. I have thought, therefore, that at the present juncture it would be useful if one gave a short historical résumé of a few facts, taken partly from the introduction to Geinitz's great Monograph on the Dyas. The title of this work is of importance as an index of the stage at which the battle between the followers of Murchison in this country and the advocates of what we may call German views had arrived in the year 1862, when Geinitz's great work was published in Leipzig. Some years before this, Murchison had propounded his view of a “Palæozoic Trias” in his Siluria, and subsequently he went over a good portion of Central Germany with Prof. Morris, and on his return gave to the Geological Society his long paper on the Thüringen and Hartz country.

In September, 1926, accompanied by my friend, Mr. James Begg, of Glasgow, I spent a few days in the Clitheroe district, being attracted thereto by a perusal of that excellent paper by Dr. Parkinson on this region (Q.J.G.S., vol. lxxxii, 1926, pp. 188–249). The paper itself, with its interesting details, really fanned into flame a smouldering desire to examine the district further, since over twenty-five years ago I had read in Our Common British Fossils, by the late Dr. Taylor—a fascinating book to a young geologist—the statement that in the neighbourhood of Clitheroe. whole beds are composed of crinoid heads. Being in Lancashire shortly afterwards, I one day went to Clitheroe and spent a few hours in Salt Hill Quarry, but owing to ignorance of the localities and lack of experience in crinoid collecting, I was grievously disappointed so far as these fossils were concerned. When Mr. Begg and I visited the district in 1926 I recognized the landmarks and saw at once that if I had gone further east to Bellman Quarry I should probably have been amply rewarded. On the results of our 1926 visit Mr. Begg and I were well pleased. We explored most of the knolls and quarries of the district and spent a considerable time, especially at Bellman and Coplow Quarries, where we collected a large number of well-fcpreserved crinoids.

In some recent papers dealing with Tithonian ammonites, the writer included zonal schemes of the higher Jurassic, up to what he considered the topmost horizon, namely the privasensis zone. The correlation of the Mediterranean ammonites with those of the “boreal province” or Pavlow's “Aquilonian” was also discussed. Since this author had recorded “Aquilonian” Craspedites and Garniericeras from the Speeton Clay and Spilsby Sandstone, the inquiry naturally led to a revision of the ammonites of the Neocomian of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. A critical examination of the ammonite horizons at the Jurasso-Cretaceous border-line seemed specially invited because in our most recent textbooks Yorkshire strata obviously well up in the Cretaceous are still included in the Jurassic; and it was also deemed useful to link up the table of Tithonian ammonite zones, above referred to, with that of the Aptian, given by the writer in a paper on the “Ammonite Horizons of the Gault and Contiguous Formations”.

In the abstract of the proceedings of the meeting, on November 8th, of the Geological Society of London, I notice that on the reading of Dr. G. M. Dawsou's “Notes on the occurrence of Mammoth-remainsinNorth-West America” the author cites the presence of Mammoth bones in a layer of clay resting on the “ground-ice” formation of the northern coast of Alaska and other areas. I drew attention to this position of the Mammoth bones above the solid ice bothinNorth Siberia and Alaska, as proved by several explorers,inmy paper on “The True Horizon of the Mammoth” (GEOL. MAG., NO. 345, p. 107, March, 1893),inwhich I claimed for the Mammoth an existence long after the period assigned for its extinction by Sir Henry H. Howorth. I see that Sir Henry, in the discussion of the paper, very naturally disagreed with the conclusion of Dr. Dawson as to the age of what is called by American geologists the “ground-ice” formation, and was of opinion “that this ice has accumulated since the beds were laid down in which the Mammoth-remains occur, and that the ice was not there when the Mammoth roamed about in the forests where he and his companions lived.” Furthermore, he is reported to have said that “humus and soil cannot accumulate upon ice, except as a moraine,” both of which statements are controverted by the explorations of recent and competent observers who have examined these regions.

During the last few years several papers have been published which throw much light on the early history of the whales, a matter about which there have been great doubt and difference of opinion. Two important points appear to have been settled: first, that the Zeuglodonts (Archœceti) are descended from the primitive group of land-carnivores, usually known as the Creodonta, and, second, that the Toothed-whales (Odontoceti) are really derived from the Zeuglodonts. On this second point there may still be room for doubt, although in the opinion of the present writer the evidence brought forward by Professor Abel in several papers, is at least sufficient to demonstrate the extreme probability that the Archæoceti are really ancestors of the Odontoceti. The origin of the Baleen-whales (Mystacoceti) is still obscure, but the fact that numerous true teeth are found in the unborn young, points to the probability that these animals also may have originated from the same, or a closely related stock as that from which the Odontoceti have descended.

In a paper entitled “Observations on Belemnites,” which was communicated to the Geological Society of London in April, 1823, J. S. Miller defined the genus Belemnites thus: —“A cephalopodous? molluscous animal provided with a fibrous spathose conical shell, divided by transverse concave septa into separate cells or chambers connected by a siphuncle; and inserted into a laminar, solid, fibrous, spathose, subconical or fusiform body extending beyond it, and forming a protecting sheath.” In May of the same year Mr. Miller contributed to the same Society another paper in which he instituted the genus Actinocamax for “spathose bodies which resemble the belemnitic guard in general appearance, but are distinguished from it by presenting, instead of the terminal cavity intended for the reception of the chambered shell, a protruding and convex base.”

The present paper is based on rnaterial partly from the collection of the Geological Survey of Great Britain and partly from a collection made by myself in May, 1947, at Kilmalaug Bay, North Trotternish, Skye. It is believed that the species of mollusca here reported form the first records from the Bathonian beds exposed there. Tate (1873) did not make any reference to this locality, although the area was marked as “Aird” on the map of the Islands of Skye and Raasay forming plate xi of Bryce's paper (1873), to which Tate's work was an appendix.

The paper of Dr. A. Kunth, “Ueber Pteraspis,” Zeitschr. der Deutscheri Geol. Gesellsch., 1872, Hft. 1, came into my hands at a time when I had just been examining the specimen of which a restored figure is given in the Plate accompanying this paper. I took an early opportunity of replying to Dr. Kunth's adventurous assertions in the Academy, and the remarks then made have been reproduced in, this Journal (April, 1873). I need, therefore, here, in reference to that matter, only make one or two additional observations Dr. Kunth based his statements on a single specimen in a bad state of preservation. His figure shows how inadequate the specimen is to support his views. Out of the many hundreds—I may even say thousands—of specimens of Heterostraci which have passed through my hands, I could easily pick several exhibiting all varieties of juxtaposition of Pteraspis with Scaphaspis, and of specimens of a single species of either genus with other specimens of the same species. The packing of several shields one within another not unfrequently occurs, as happens very generally in the embedding of concave shells. The mere association of these shields, as in Gallicia and in Herefordshire, is not a phenomenon on which any one familiar with them—through examination of numbers of specimens from various localities—would venture to base any argument as to structural connexion.

Many fossils in the older rocks have been distorted by pressure, and if only one specimen is available it is often difficult to be sure of its original proportions. Sometimes, however, there is a specimen which not only furnishes sufficient data for the determination of its original form, but can be made to yield a photograph in which the distortion is corrected. In his paper on “Slaty Cleavage” Harker1 showed how, in such cases, the distortion can be determined, and he referred to an earlier paper by Dufet2 in which the same principle is used, though in a different way. So far as I know the method of correcting the distortion photographically has not previously been employed.

One purpose of this paper is to place on record a new crinoid genus from Coplow Knoll, Clitheroe. The name Edapocrinus is proposed for its reception. Another is to note the discovery of two nearly complete crinoids at the same locality. This type of preservation is very rare at Coplow since the great majority of specimens found there consist of calices only and, except Actinocrinus and allied genera which have the lower brachials incorporated in the cup, it is only on a rare occasion that one finds a cup with any portion of the arms in position. In a paper to this Magazine, (1928, p. 246), I noted the discovery of the rare Flexible species, Euryocrinus rofei Bather and Gregory, which had part of the arms preserved, and remarked then on the scarcity of complete specimens of any species. Besides Coplow, this seems to apply to all the knolls in the Clitheroe region. Phillips, in his Geology of Yorkshire (1836), describes a considerable number of species from “Bolland”, most of which appear to have been collected by Gilbertson of Preston, and possibly some of the specimens were found at Coplow. All are cups only, with the exception of Poteriocrinus, now Taxocrinus nobilis, which is a complete crown. On different occasions during the last eight years, when I have made an annual visit to Coplow, I have found odd portions of arms, greatly displaced and not attached to any cup, usually in such a jumbled state that they were indeterminable.

In a recent paper the writer described structures which he had found in the Frodingham Ironstone of Lincolnshire. The claim that these structures are fossil fungi is one of more than usual interest, for fossil fungi have not hitherto been recorded from the Jurassic rocks, and, further, the decomposition established by this fungus must have been carried out under marine conditions. Since the publication of this paper criticisms as to the conclusions contained in it have not been wanting, and it is proposed in the present paper to deal with these criticisms and further to furnish a few additional data to supplement those that have already been given.

In a previous paper (Wright, 1935, p. 193) it was remarked that the crinoids of Coplow Knoll, Clitheroe, mainly consist of calices or thecae only and that specimens showing any part of the arms are extremely rare. In the paper cited, photographs were given of two specimens with arms, one being referred to a new species Cyathocrinus patulosus and the other to Pachylocrinus aff. longidactylus (Austin). Flexible crinoids belonging to the genus Euryocrinus, with part of the arm structure preserved, have also been recorded and a Poteriocrinid assigned to Pachylocrinus conicus (Phillips) (Wright, 1928, 1942). The latter species and P. aff. longidactylus mentioned above will probably have to be removed to another genus but it is not intended to discuss them at present. All these specimens were found at rather long intervals. I was therefore agreeably surprised on a recent visit to Coplow to find two fairly well-preserved crowns belonging to the genera Taxocrinus and Synbathocrinm and since the species represented by these specimens appear to differ from known forms they are now described in the present paper. An excellently preserved specimen of a species of Platycrinites was also found. This specimen shows a good part of the arm structure and although it is not possible to determine with certainty its specific identity the type of preservation exhibited by it is so rare at Coplow that it is here deemed worthy of being placed on record. Another specimen with arms, probably belonging to the same genus and found a few years ago is also recorded (Plate VII, fig. 1; Plate VIII, fig. 4).

This paper is an elaboration of the author's contribution to the 1938 British Association discussion on the distribution and migration of British Lower Palaeozoic faunas. It concerns mainly the faunas of Western Europe and North America and presents in summary the author's conclusions regarding faunal affinities and directions of immigration of the Asterozoan element in those areas. There is a notable agreement with Stubblefield's conclusions regarding the trilobite element, especially as concerns the Ordovician. The scope of the discussion is here extended to include notes on Devonian and Carboniferous faunas and some Cystid references. The paper concludes with some systematic notes, and three new generic names are proposed.

It was my intention to have devoted this paper to the Coniferous Fruits found in Strata of Secondary age in Britain, reserving for future examination, those belonging to the later periods, but in the progress of my investigations I have found that, two remarkable cones, which have hitherto been considered as belonging to the Greensand, are certainly Tertiaryfossils; and having placed them on the plates which illustrate this paper, I shall include them in my descriptions.

The unusually interesting Albian beds exposed in the neighbourhood of Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire have been the subject of descriptive papers by Lamplugh and Walker (1903), Kitchin and Pringle (1920), and Lamplugh (1922), as well as a number of short notes and excursion reports. These papers give details of the stratigraphy of the Leighton Sands, the overlying Gault, and the extraordinary beds which occur in between them round Shenley Hill. Many of the ammonites from the “regularis nodules” of Billington Crossing, south of the town, were described by Spath (1922–1943). He also referred, in the same work, to a number of Upper Albian forms from the Nodule Bed at the base of the Upper Gault on Shenley Hill. Our own collecting, carried out intermittently since 1937, has produced many new records, including several new species, and recent work has enabled us to amplify the stratigraphical picture given by the authors mentioned above. The present paper deals only with the stratigraphy but we hope that it will be followed by papers on several elements of the fauna.

Study of the fauna from a newly discovered fossiliferous outcrop of the Cove Lower Marine Band in Thornton Burn, East Lothian, has led to the correlation of this horizon with the Redesdale Ironstone in Northumberland and has thereby demonstrated the first palaeontological link between the Upper Calciferous Sandstone in S.E. Scotland and the Lower Limestone Group in N.E. England. The collection of D1 fauna made from the Thornton Burn outcrop includes goniatites, brachiopods, lamellibranchs, and crinoids. The discovery of Beyrichoceratoides redesdalensis (Hind) gives the first definite indication of the presence of B zone in the Scottish Carboniferous. Faunal lists and descriptions of some of the more interesting species are included in this paper as well as descriptions of the crinoids collected which are given in the succeeding paper by James Wright.

In a paper (1) by one of us (W. F. F.) reference is made to the occurence in Midland sediments of apatite grains having dark purplish, often pleochroic, cores or nuclei. From an examination of the heavy minerals in Midland rocks ranging from Cambrian to Trias it is evident that these peculiar apatite grains occur at several horizons. Discoloured grains appear in the Cambrian quartzite and apatite of smoky tint in the Old Red Sandstone. In the Carboniferous rocks, dark-banded grains varying in tint from yellowish-brown to smoky-purple and occasionally pleochroic, occur with fair frequency. Similar grains are particularly noticeable in the Gornal Sandstone, which lies in the lower part of the Middle Coal Measures of South Staffordshire. An hexagonal cross section of apatite from this rock, with a dark core, was figured in the paper referred to above. Similar grains occur, though rarely, in the Enville and Bunter Sandstone, but increase in frequency in the lower Keuper Sandstone. The dark-colored “cores” may be sharp-edged or rather indefinite in contour, narrow or broad, and variable as regards depth of tint. Clear-cut bands or stripes of dark colour are exceptional.

The sudden disappearance of groups of animals, which have existed through long periods of time and have attained a high degree of specialization, is a phenomenon of which many instances will occur to every student of Palæozoology. For instance, to mention only two cases in illustration, we may refer to the disappearance of the Dinosaurs at the end of the Secondary period, and that of the North American Titanotheres in the Miocene. Of the proximate causes of this extinction little is known: they must have been either inherent in the organisms themselves, or have been connected with the relations of the organisms with their environment; probably in every case several factors co-operated to bring about the observed result. In a recent paper by Mr. C. B. Crampton (Proc. Roy. Phys. Soc. Edinburgh, vol. xiv, p. 461) a possible inherent cause of extinction is suggested. It is impossible to do justice to this interesting paper in a short note, but the gist of the argument seems to be as follows:—In the original unicellular organism the possibilities of variation are almost infinite, but as soon as evolution along any line begins, these possibilities are restricted, and become more and more so the more highly specialized the animal is; in short, the potential variation of an organism becomes less and less as specialization advances. Furthermore, under the influence of natural selection, in each generation the individuals which tend to vary in the same direction will survive, while at the same time, as already pointed out, their capacity for variation becomes more and more restricted.

Since the publication of my paper, entitled “Notes on the Genus Phaneropleuron, with a Description of a New Species from the Carboniferous Formation,” in the Geological Magazine for December, 1871, pp. 529–535, Sir Philip Egerton has kindly sent me for comparison a specimen in his collection of the Burdiehouse fish, named by Agassiz Uronemus lobatus, at the same time directing my attention to the resemblance which it bore to the fish which in the paper referred to I had described and figured as Phaneropleuron elegans. I am also indebted to the Earl of Enniskillen for an opportunity of examining another specimen of the same fish.

The author of a paper on the above subject read before the Anthropological Section of the British Association at Southport having made the startling assertion that, “In immediate proximity (to where the skull was found) were numerous bones of the Irish Elk and Reindeer,” I feel it incumbent on me to relate the facts of the case. Unfortunately I was not at the meeting when the paper was read, so could not contradict the statement on the spot.

SUMMARYCalcarea and Hexactinellida are now characteristic of different depth zones, and have shown comparable bathymetric zonation since the Carboniferous period. This paper reviews and discusses relevant evidence from modern and fossil sponge faunas, together with some problems involved in the use of the modern data for the assessment of past depths. The most important independent evidence is provided by calcareous algae and herma-typic Scleractinia.

In the March Number of this Magazine Mr. Cowper Reed recorded the interesting discovery of a series of fossils which points to a Bartonian horizon for the Hengistbury ironstone. Upon reading this paper I was reminded of some chocolate-coloured clays with Foraminifera which I had collected from a seam between the ironstone bands at Hengistbury Head in August, 1895. The washings from these clays afforded abundant tests of arenaceous forms; and since, so far as I am aware, no Foraminifera have yet been recorded from this locality, it may be of some interest to publish the results of an examination of the material collected.

This form was first made known in 1897, by the late J. F. Whiteaves, in a paper entitled “Description of a new genus and species of Cystideans from the Trenton Limestone at Ottawa” (Canad. Rec. Sci., vol. vii, No. 5, pp. 287–92). This part bears on the wrapper the date “January, 1897”, which is obviously erroneous, since the author dated his own contribution “April 28th, 1897”, and copies of it were first received in London on July 31 of that year.

Wheelton hind in his Monograph on Carbonicola gave a critical review of what was known about hinge structure in that genus up to 1896; he described and figured the hinge structure in various species of Carbonicola, notably in shells which he referred to C. acuta (Sowerby). Since that time little has been published about hinge structure in Carbonicola. A paper by M. C. March on the structure and relationships of Carbonicola appears only to have been published in abstract (1913): In that, mention was made of the specialization of the ligament and “cardinal plateau” in the hinge line of Carbonicola, the “cardinal plateau” being grooved for the reception of an internal ligament. It was also stated that hinge structure was absent in C. antiqua, poorly represented in C. turgida and similar forms, and most highly developed in C. aquilina.

A Collection of Invertebrate fossils, obtained from various horizons and localities in Egypt and consisting principally of molluscan remains, has been sent home for examination and description by Captain H. G. Lyons, R.E., Director of the Geological Survey of that country.The oldest specimens represented belong to Upper Cretaceous rocks, and are dealt with in the present communication. They include one species of Gasteropod and eight Lamellibranchs, two of the latter group being regarded as hitherto undescribed forms. It need hardly be stated here that most of our knowledge respecting these groups of Mollusca as represented in Egypt during this period has been ably summarized by Professor Dr. von Zittel, in his elaborate memoir, “Beiträge zur Geologie und Palaeontologie der Libyschen Wiiste und der angrenzenden Gebiete von Aegypten,” published in the Paleaontographica for 1883. For subsequent details we are mainly indebted to the researches of Professor Mayer-Eymar and Prof. Johannes Walther: to the former for his monograph, “Zur Geologie Egyptens,” which includes a list of Cretaceous shells from the neighbourhood of the Great Pyramid; and to the latter for his paper, “L'Apparition de la Craie aux Environs des Pyramides,” containing a list of molluscan species from the same distinct and horizon, though particularly localized as Abu Eoasch, Golea, etc.A paucity of Gasteropod species is noticeable in the faunistic lists of the Upper Cretaceous period of Egypt, with, however, a large representation of bivalve mollusca. The most abundant forms appear to belong to the genus Ostrea and its allies, a fact also observable in the corresponding faunas of Algeria and Tunis. In all three countries a similar conchological facies is apparent, whilst some species show a marked resemblance to Syrian forms. Certain difficulties have arisen in assigning a satisfactory horizon to the Egyptian species here discussed, though the evidence appears to be in favour of a Turonian age—an opinion somewhat suggested by the palaaontological work of M. Jules Welsch, who has discovered in Algeria, Sphærulites (Sauvagesia) Sharpei, Bayle, a typical Turoniiin shell of Portugal, associated with Ostrea acanihonota, O. Boncheroni, etc. This author, therefore, inclines to the belief that the majority of Algerian species hitherto recognised by Coquand, Peron, and others as of Santonian age, are more probably Turonian. If this be accepted, then the Cretaceous rocks near Cairo (Abu Roasch, etc.), containing similar shells, which have been considered as Senonian by Schweinfurth, Walther, etc., should equally be regarded as Turonian, though apparently the Portuguese mollusc, Sauvagesia Sharpei, has not yet been identified in Egypt.

In a recent paper (American Journal of Science and Arts, vol. iii., March, 1872), I founded a new genus, under the name of Conchicolites, for the reception of some singular Tubicolar Annelides found growing upon the shells of Orthocerata in the Lower Silurian of the North of England.

The internal structures and development of the genus Holocystis Ed. and Haime, of which only one species, the type, has been recorded, have not previously been described. It is the purpose of this paper to repair the omission. This Aporose genus is interesting in that it exhibits certain characters normally well developed amongst Rugosa and in possessing four principal septa arranged in a cruciform manner within the calice, instead of having its septa merely arranged on the hexameral plan characteristic of normal Aporosa. I am greatly indebted to Dr. Stanley Smith for the loan of certain specimens, and for much helpful criticism and advice, and to Professor S. H. Reynolds for access to, and use of, material in the geological collections of the University of Bristol.

WHILE collating the plates in a recently acquired copy of the Revision of the Echini (A. Agassiz, 1872–4), I noticed with surprise a representation of complex ambulacral structure in “Echinobrissus” recens (pl. xiv a, figs. 3–4). A style of plate-grouping essentially similar to that in Echinonëus (tab. cit., figs. 7–8) is portrayed as affecting all the extra-petaloid parts of the five areas, and encroaching slightly on the distal parts of the petals. No reference to this unusual condition occurs in the text. As the proofs of my recent paper on ambulacral structures (Phil. Trans., B, vol. 209) were in my hands at the time, I was immediately impressed by the remarkable resemblance between “E.” recens and the Cretaceous Trematopygus—a correspondence by no means restricted to ambulacral plating, but involving all coronal features save the orientation of the peristome.

In the Revue Scientifique for the 13th of September, 1879, Professor Carl Vogt published a remarkable article on the Archæopteryx. This Memoir being in a periodical that would not come under the notice of all readers in this country, an excellent translation of the paper was published in the Ibis. It is difficult, if not indeed somewhat unhandsome, to criticize Carl Vogt's contribution; seeing that it makes known the famous second skeleton of Archæopteryx, which had long evaded all efforts to learn its characters. The present writer followed it from Solenhofen, in its migrations over Germany, only to find it guarded like a sacred mystery in the house of Otto Volger, in Frankfort. But while very difficult, from not having seen the specimen, for me to speak with any confidence on points of the anatomy of Archaopteryx in which Carl Vogt's conclusions may be open to discussion, it is much easier, and, indeed, almost a pleasant duty, to differ from him emphatically in the philosophical conclusions drawn from his study of the slab. And I here offer a few remarks, since the like have not been volunteered from any one more competent to speak on the subject, concerning reasons why naturalists should at least hold their judgment in suspense before adopting some of the learned Professor's new conclusions, and in the hope of elucidating the true nature of this singular fossil.

In a paper read before the Birmingham Philosophical Society in 1882, it was announced by Professor Lapworth that the discovery of fossils in some shales underlying the productive Coalmeasures of Warwickshire, and coloured on the Geological Survey Map as Coal-measures, proved that these shales must be of Cambrian age (Lower Silurian of the Geological Survey). As the true age of these shales had for many years been a debateable question, Professor Lapworth's discovery was of considerable interest, and has led to an important alteration being made in the map, the supposed Lower Coal-measures and Millstone Grit having both been now relegated to the Lower Silurian (Lingula Flags). It may be of interest, before entering on the description of these beds, to trace shortly the history of the error in their classification.

During a recent stay in London the kindness of Dr. A. S. Woodward enabled me to study some of the splendid Dinosaurian remains in the British Museum.Having principally occupied myself till now with Ornithopodous Dinosaurs, first of all Hypsilophodon attracted my attention, and my expectation that this type would prove to be the clue for the understanding of all the other Orthopoda has been perfectly fulfilled.Hypsilophodon was described and figured at various times by Owen, Huxley, and Hulke; a restoration of this animal was given by Marsh in the Geological Magazine for 1896 (p. 6, Fig. 2), and the complete bibliographical list concerning this Dinosaur is compiled in my paper “Synopsis und Abstammung der Dinosaurier” (Földtani Közlöny, 1901, Budapest).In consequence of our more recent knowledge of Dinosaurs in general I managed to detect some new points of remarkable interest.Mandible. What Hulke, in describing the Hypsilophodon skull, No. 110, supposed to be the parietal, frontal, and post-frontal bones (Phil. Trans., 1882, pl. lxxi, fig. 1, pa., fr., ps.f.), turned out to be the outer view of a complete right mandibular ramus, so that the parietal changes into an articular, the frontal becomes the dentary, and the post-frontal the coronoid bone. This piece (p. 207, Fig. 4) is, in fact, the finest mandibulum of Hypsilophodon I have seen in the whole collection, and as such worthy to be refigured.The general outline of the mandibulum, with its strongly abbreviated post-coronoidal part and its blunt processus coronoideum, reminds one somewhat of the under jaw of Placodus gigas, though it differs of course in nearly every detail, being built up after the Iguanodon type.

In a paper entitled “On Traces Of Glacial Action near Llandudno,” printed in the Geological Magazine, Vol. IV. p. 289, I described certain indications of glacial action (as they appeared to me) upon the two masses of Carboniferous Limestone, well known to visitors at Llandudno under the name of the Great and Little Ormesheads. The principal conclusion at which I arrived was that, “after the limestone hills of the district had acquired their leading forms by upheaval and marine denudation, the whole district was depressed. The summits of the low rocky islets thus formed became capped with ice-fields, which in places descended in glaciers into the sea. At times, very probably, they were united to the mainland by pack or coast ice.” I then supposed that, after some minor changes, “the whole was gradually upheaved above the sea, probably—at any rate, in the case of the Great Ormeshead—not quite uniformly.”

In a previous paper we showed that the extinction of the Mammoth was sudden, and was accompanied by a sudden change of climate throughout Northern Siberia, which enabled its soft parts to be preserved intact. We did not mean that the change of climate was the cause of the Mammoth's extinction. This it clearly was not, for this change on a large and marked scale was apparently confined to Siberia, while the Mammoth disappeared from a much wider area, where this climatic revolution could not have been so fatal. A sudden change of climate could not account for a catena of Mammoth carcases found buried several feet underground from the Obi to Behrings Straits. If they had been killed by the cold merely, their bodies would have lain on the surface where they fell and become long ago the prey of the predatory animals. Nor again can we, with such a postulate merely, account for the remains occurring in many cases in hecatombs, and in many cases also with a mixture of various species of animals. The cold would hardly have destroyed the bears and hyænas which are found linked in a common fate with the Mammoths and Rhinoceroses. Nor, as we shall see, would a mere change of climate, however severe, account for other factors in the problem. The change of climate accounts perfectly for the preservation of the carcases, which preservation again necessitates the conclusion that that change was a sudden or very rapid one; but we have clearly still to seek the real cause of the disappearance of the animals of which the change of climate was a concurrent effect.

In my last communication, “On the Schists of the Lizard District,” published in this Magazine for April, which was meant as preparatory for the present paper, my object was to show that the rocks known as the “talco-micaceous,” “hornblendic,” and “granulitic” groups were of true igneous origin, also plutonic? and had been formed out of a common, but complex magma, and that all of these groups were made up of rocks differing widely from the types of each of them, which in some instances were seemingly due to differences in the rate of cooling, and to chemical affinity; and yet again in other instances to subsequent mechanical movements and pressure during or after consolidation.

Pathological individuals or monstrosities of ammonites (kakomorphs in Buckman’s terminology) have long been known and some have, rightly or wrongly, been given specific names. Indeed, they probably include a genus, namely Nipponites, Yabe, 1904, based on a unique specimen, the incredible tangle of which may represent only an extreme monstrosity of one of those Nostoceratids (Didymoceras, Emperoceras, etc.) which normally began life with a hamitid or ptychoceratid shell, then changed to a turricone and finished up with a helicoid body-chamber, often combining dextral and sinistral coiling in the same individual. A few authors have taken delight in collecting and describing such “cripples” (Engel, 1894, 1909; Wingrave, 1929); to other palaeontologists, however, they have caused nomenclatorial difficulties. Thus Crick (1901), when recording as Ammonites ramsayanus, Sharpe, a monstrosity in the Bath Museum, had to confess that Sharpe’s type specimen certainly was deformed and he thought the Bath specimen was also a malformation. Yet he added “being unable to refer them to any other species which had hitherto been described from the Chalk, it seemed desirable to retain, at least provisionally, Sharpe’s name”. Crick should have known, of course, that a specific name may be valid or invalid, but that it cannot be provisional. In other papers, however, dealing with deformed ammonites, Crick (1898, 1899, 1918) found the nomenclature less embarrassing.

From the standpoint of biological geography, the most significant event in the recent history of Canada has been the occurrence of widespread severe glaciation. This resulted in the whole of the previously existing fauna being either exterminated or driven southward. When the ice sheets receded northwards at the end of the last glacial period, this region was once more populated by animals, including both fresh water and terrestrial mollusca, the remains of which are to be found in various post-glacial deposits. The migration of animals into this new territory did not take place all at once, and it is noteworthy that no fossil mollusca have been found in the deposits laid down during the early stages of the glacial retreat. The purpose of this paper is to give in concise form the history of the present molluscan fauna of this region in so far as it is evidenced by the post-glacial fossils found in the region. The series of fossil-bearing deposits herein described is far from complete, and many additional finds will doubtless be made in the course offuture field work. Nevertheless, a sufficient number of observations has been made to indicate the general nature and duration of the molluscan immigration into the area.

It was indicated in a previous paper (Geol. Mag., LXXII, 1935, p. 208) that the Scottish Lower Carboniferous crinoid fauna contains a number of species which have never been adequately described. In the present communication, ten of these are discussed, the remainder, another ten or eleven species, will be dealt with later. All the specimens except four were collected by myself many years ago, but it was only recently that the requisite leisure was found to develop and clean them thoroughly.

THE following account is based on the six specimens recorded by Dr. W. D Lang in his paper on “The Ibex-zone at Charmouth, and its relation to the Zones near it” After mentioning the occurrence, in the top of the zone, of an apparently new Polymorphitid, Dr. Lang added the following footnote: “A striking form, 3 to 4 inches in diameter, with numerous, very thin costæ. Two specimens were found (not in place) in the winter, 1915–16, by Lieut. Dan Haggard, who presented them to the British Museum. The author found parts of three specimens in place in the Pyritic Marls in June, 1916. A sixth specimen, the best preserved of all, has been in the British Museum many years, and is labelled ‘Said to be from Lyme Regis’.”

At the conclusion of my last paper on the Cheviot andesites and porphyrites (Geol. Mag. Vol. X. p. 262), I called attention to the close resemblance between the Cheviot hypersthene andesite (or porphyrite) and a rock from Steinerne Mann, Nahe, which has been called a proterobase. Both rocks are black in colour and consist macroscopically of glassy felspars (Mikrolin) imbedded in a groundmass which has a resinous or semi-resinous lustre. Microscopically they consist of two generations of felspar, pyroxene mostly rhombic, magnetite, and a glassy base with various devitrification products.

This paper reviews the stratigraphic micropalaeontology of the Lapithos Group of Cyprus, which is now known to be Upper Cretaceous to Lower Miocene in age. A three-fold subdivision, on the basis of planktonic foraminifera, into Lower (Upper Cretaceous) Middle (Danian to Eocene) and Upper (Oligocene to Lower Miocene) Lapithos Formations is suggested and a summary of the outcrops of each formation is given. The foraminiferal faunas of the Lapithos Group are discussed and it can be shown that a planktonic and a neritic faunal assemblage is present in each formation. The Terra Limestone, hitherto considered as part of the Dhali Group, shows faunal affinities with the Upper Lapithos neritic facies and is therefore placed in the Lapithos Group.

Owing to the marked persistence of general external form and internal characters in the Rhynchonellidæ, it is necessary in this family to seize on slighter differences for the foundation of genera than is elsewhere necessary or advisable. The object of this paper is to point out the characters that have been used and others which may advantageously be introduced in the discrimination of the genera of Recent and Tertiary representatives of the group. These are not at present distributed by authors amongst the genera Rhynchonella, Fischer; Acanthothyris, d'Orbigny ; Hemithyris, d'Orbigny ; Cryptopora, Jeffreys (syn. Atretia, Neatretia); Frieleia, Dall; and Basiola, Dall.

In some papers which have lately appeared in the Geological Magazine, I have endeavoured to show that the Ural Mountains, and also the great masses of high land in Eastern Asia from the Altai to the Himalayas, are of very recent geological origin, and that it was probably their rapid elevation which caused the great diluvial movement of which traces are to be found all over the Siberian plains. I now wish to call attention to some of the evidence which points to the American Cordillera being also a very recent geological feature, and dating from the same period of cataclysmic revolution which closed the Mammoth age.It is a curious fact that one name, America, connotes both of the great continents hung together by the isthmus of Panama. The cause of this is of course purely historical, and yet it coincides with a great physical fact, namely, their essential unity in more than one respect. The generic unity of the old inhabitants of both continents is a peculiar fact in ethnography; but the unity is even more remarkable in this, that the vertebral column which runs north and south through the two Americas is essentially one backbone.