PART II.
FOSSIL FAUNA.
Plates XXXIV. to LXXIV. inclusive.
PLATE XXXIV.
(_Plates XXXIV. to LXXIV. inclusive, are from Parkinson's Organic Remains._)
Fossil Tubipore, from Derbyshire.
(_Syringopora geniculata_, of Phillips, from the Mountain Limestone, Derbyshire.)
The specimen figured is a mass of limestone, on the surface of which is spread out in high relief a delicate tubiporite, or fossil coral, allied to the Tubipora, or "Organ-pipe coral," so generally preserved in cabinets of natural curiosities, from the beauty and elegance of its crimson tubes. The fossil, however, though somewhat resembling the recent coral in its general form, belongs to an extinct genus.
This Syringopora appears to have been very abundant in the sea in which the strata of mountain or carboniferous limestone were deposited, for it forms entire beds of great extent. A beautifully figured marble results from this coral, when the interstices of its tubes have been filled up with compact calcareous matter. A small polished slab is represented in fig. 2. At Matlock, vases, and other ornamental articles, are made of it; and the sections of the coral tubes impart considerable variety of figures.[25]
[Footnote 25: Articles of this kind may be obtained of Mr. Tennant, 149, Strand.]
Some slabs of this fossil coral are of a dull red hue, which there is every reason to conclude is due to the colour of the original; and not only are traces of the natural tints of the living zoophyte preserved, but even the animal membrane of the coral; and this may be exposed by immersing a fragment of the marble in dilute muriatic (hydrochloric) acid. Mr. Parkinson thus describes the result of his first experiment:--
"A fragment of the marble (Plate XXXIV. fig. 2) was exposed to the action of muriatic acid in a very dilute state. As the calcareous earth was dissolved, and the carbonic acid escaped, I was delighted to observe the membranaceous substance appear, depending from the stone in light, flocculent, elastic flakes. Many of these retained a deep red colour, and appeared in a beautiful and distinct manner, although not absolutely retaining the form of the tubipore. A faithful representation of this appearance is given in fig. 3."
This experiment of Mr. Parkinson was highly important, as proving the previously almost incredible fact, that animal membrane, when hermetically sealed, as it were, in the solid stone, was as indestructible as the rock itself. It suggested, too, the probability that vestiges of other animal tissues might be traced in organic remains, and encouraged subsequent observers to seek for evidence of the soft parts of animal bodies entombed in the strata. It was the first step in the right direction, and led to the detection of many highly interesting phenomena. In Dr. Buckland's Bridgewater Essay will be found figures and descriptions of the eyes of crustacea: of the wings, elytra or wing-covers, and the integuments of the body of insects; of the skin of reptiles; and, in the "Wonders of Geology," and "Medals of Creation," of the membranes of the air-bladder, and of the capsule of the eye of fishes; of the soft parts of the animalcules called foraminifera, &c. The bodies of mollusca, or shell-fish, converted into a dark brown mass (_mollushite_), occur in such abundance in some deposits, as to yield a rich manure from the quantity of phosphate of lime. The excrementitious substances termed by Dr. Buckland "Coprolites," are also used for agricultural purposes.
PLATE XXXV.
The subjects here figured are Fossil Corals.
Fig. 1. (_Syringopora ramulosa_.) A fragment of another species of the coral previously described; from the mountain limestone.
Fig. 2, represents four connected tubes of the recent organ-pipe coral (_Sarcinula musica_) of New Holland, to show the structure of this type of Zoophytes. Coloured figures of the live polypes of this coral are given in Wonders of Geology, sixth edition, vol. ii. plate vi.
Fig. 3. A polished slab of marble, the white markings in which are produced by sections of the tubes of the same species of coral as that represented in fig. 1.
Fig. 4. (_Catenipora escharoides._) The fossil here delineated is well known to collectors by the name of "_chain-coral_" derived from the elegant cateniform markings produced by transverse sections of the parallel tubes, which being of an oval form, and in close apposition, give rise to chain-like figures, as shown in figs. 5 and 6. From Dudley.
This fossil coral abounds in that division of the Silurian formation termed the Wenlock or Dudley limestones, wherever these deposits occur. The most exquisite specimens are obtained from the Falls of the Ohio, at Louisville, in the United States of America. A coral reef of the Silurian epoch here exists in the bed of the mighty stream of fresh water, almost as perfect as when growing in its native sea! The river dashes over the entire mass in the season of high water; but in those periods when the stream is low, the ridge of coral is exposed, and its surface then presents the most extraordinary display of Silurian corals, of numerous species and genera, standing in relief on the more compact masses of the rock. The substance of the corals, being siliceous, resists the action of the cataract, while the softer calcareous matter which filled up the interstices of the tubes, lamellæ, &c. of the zoophytes, is washed away atom by atom; and natural dissections are formed, which art would in vain attempt to imitate. Dr. Yandell, of the Medical College, Louisville, and Dr. Clapp, of New Albany, have splendid collections from the Falls, which every geologist and intelligent traveller who visits Kentucky should not fail to examine: the masses of Astreæ, Madrepores, &c. are so fresh in their aspect, as not to be readily distinguished from the recent specimens of the same genera which are placed beside them.[26]
[Footnote 26: See Sir Charles Lyell's Travels in the United States; and Drs. Yandell and Shumard's "Contributions to the Geology of Kentucky." Louisville, 1847.]
Fig. 5, is a transverse section of a mass of chain-coral from Dudley.
Fig. 6. The same, as seen by transmitted light.
PLATE XXXVI.
Various Fossil Corals from different Formations.
Figs. 1, 2, 3. (_Cyathophyllum turbinatum_, of Goldfuss.) These three turbinated or top-shaped corals are referable to a genus of which many species are exceedingly abundant in the Wenlock or Dudley limestone of the Silurian System. They belong to the Anthozoa, or flower-like corals. The living animal, of which the _coral_ is but the durable earthy fabric or skeleton, bore a close analogy to the sea-anemone, or animal flower (_Actinia_), of our coasts. Each of these specimens belonged but to a single animal: the Cyathophylla are not, like the tubipores previously described, an aggregation of numerous individual polypes.[27]
[Footnote 27: For a popular account of the nature of Corals and the animals which form them, see Wonders of Geology, vol. ii. Lect. vi. p. 589.]
Fig. 4. A small coral (_Fungia_) from Dudley.
Fig. 5. On this block of mountain limestone there are the remains of two different kinds of corals. The upper cylindrical part is a fragment of Cyathophyllum, to the lower part of which is attached a species of another genus (_Michelinia_).
Fig. 6, is a small coral (_Fungia numismalis_, of Goldfuss), common in the Oolite.
Fig. 7. A piece of encrinital limestone, from Derbyshire, having a conical cast--that is, the stone has been moulded in the interior or cavity--of a turbinated coral (_Turbinolia_).
Fig. 8. A longitudinal section, showing the transverse cells and lamellæ of the same kind of coral (_Cyathophyllum_) as figs. 1, 2, 3.
Fig. 9. A species of Turbinolia (_Turbinolia complanata_, of Goldfuss).
Fig. 10. A small turbinated coral (_Turbinolia mitrata_, of Hesinger), from the Silurian strata of Gothland.
Fig. 11. A Turbinolia from the Silurian deposits of Sweden.
Fig. 12. A remarkable coral (_Petraia_, of Munster), from the Devonian strata.
Figs. 13 & 14, are sections of Cyathophylla, like figs. 1, 2, 3, to exhibit the internal structure.
Figs. 15 & 16. Two elegant simple corals (_Caryophyllia centralis_, of Mantell), from the chalk of Kent. The form and disposition of the lamellæ of the cavity, as seen at the upper part of the specimens, are shown at _a_ and _b_.
Fig. 17. A transverse and polished section of a species of Cyathophyllum, from the Devonian strata, at Blackenberg on the Rhine.
PLATE XXXVII.
Various Fossil Compound Corals.
Fig. 1. A beautiful specimen of Star-coral (_Astrea ananas_, of Goldfuss), from the Silurian strata of Sweden. At _a_, is shown "the mode in which, as in proliferous flowers, new polypes bud from the centre of the parent disk. At _b_, is represented the growth in the recent _Madrepora stellaris_ of Linnæus."--_Mr. Parkinson._
Fig. 2. An elegant Cyathophyllum (_C. dianthus_, of Goldfuss), from the Silurian formation of Sweden. At _c_, (the lower part of the plate,) is shown its probable mode of increase.
Figs. 3 & 6. A columnar compound coral (_Lithostrotion striatum_, of Lhwyd), from the mountain limestone of Derbyshire; fig. 3, is a transverse section of fig. 6, showing the basaltiform arrangement of the columns.
Fig. 4. "A fossil madrepore, from Lincolnshire."--_Mr. Parkinson._
Fig. 5. A very elegant and abundant coral (_Caryophyllia annularis_, of Parkinson), in the bed termed "Coral Rag," of the oolite of Wiltshire, Berkshire, &c. Large conglomerated masses of this branched species form a considerable proportion of the fossil coral-reef which traverses some parts of the oolite: and when this bed is worked for road materials, blocks of this coral, more or less changed into calcareous spar, may be seen lying on the way-side. Near Faringdon, in Berkshire, a quarry in the Coral-rag has yielded many beautiful examples.
Fig. 7. Called "Spider-stone," by Mr. Parkinson. It is a species of _Astrea_: _d_, is an enlarged view of one of the polype-cells.
Fig. 8. A beautiful fossil coral, from Transylvania (apparently a species of Lithostrotion?).
Fig. 9. The specimen figured is from the mountain limestone of the Mendip Hills. (It is the _Michelinia tenuisepta_, of Phillips; _Manon favosum_, of Goldfuss?) It is described by Mr. Parkinson as "bearing somewhat of a honeycomb appearance."
PLATE XXXVIII.
Fossil Corals, and Coral Marbles.
Fig. 1, is a polished slab of the carboniferous limestone, well known as the Kilkenny marble, and much used for chimney-pieces. The figures exposed on the surface are produced by sections of enclosed corals (some species of Cyathophyllum), which are transmuted into white calcareous spar.
Fig. 2. A coral of the same kind (_Cyathophyllum turbinatum_), from the mountain limestone of Derbyshire.
Fig. 3. A polished slice of Derbyshire marble, the markings on which are derived from sections of enclosed branches of corals (_Syringopora_), resembling that figured in Pl. XXXIV.
Fig. 4. An elegant compound coral, called "Spider-stone" by collectors (_Astrea arachnoides_, of Dr. Fleming); from Wiltshire: the geological habitat uncertain; probably the Oolite.
Fig. 5. This specimen appears to be a cluster of corals belonging to the genus Cyathophyllum.
Fig. 6. A magnified sketch of one of the cells of fig. 4.
Fig. 7. A polished transverse section of a coral; the precise relation of this species is not certain.
Fig. 8. This is a very abundant coral in some of the beds of mountain limestone, (_Lithodendron fasciculatum_, of Phillips.) The specimen figured is from Clifton, near Bristol. The marble cups, and other ornaments, manufactured from the rocks near that place, often exhibit sections of this species.
Fig. 9. A mass of coral from Ingleborough, (_Cyathophyllum fungites._)
Fig. 10. A polished slice of a beautiful marble richly marked by the sections of the enclosed corals (_Astrea undulata_, of Dr. Fleming); from Switzerland: probably from the Oolitic or Jurassic formation.
Fig. 11. Vertical section of a fossil coral, showing the transverse arrangement of the internal cells.
Figs. 12 & 13. These specimens are polished sections of a very beautiful compound coral (_Astrea Tisburiensis_, of Miss Benett), which occurs in a silicified state in the Portland beds that are quarried at Tisbury, in Wiltshire. Masses of chert (a kind of coarse silex or flint), wholly made up of this coral, are often met with, and when sliced and polished are extremely beautiful and interesting; the originally calcareous fabric of the zoophytes being perfectly transmuted into silex, and the interstices filled up with a similar substance, but of a different colour.[28]
[Footnote 28: Specimens of the Tisbury Astrea, and of most if not all of the coralline marbles figured and described, may be obtained of Professor Tennant; and also vases, &c. of the various marbles of Derbyshire.]
PLATE XXXIX.
Various Fossil Corals and Sponges, or Amorphozoa.
Fig. 1. A coral from the Dudley limestone. (_Favosites?_)
Fig. 2, is a vertical section of figs. 4 and 5, to show the internal arrangement of the cells.
Fig. 3. The under surface of a very common species (_Favosites Gothlandica_, of Goldfuss); from the Wenlock limestone of Dudley. A magnified view of part of the surface, to show the honeycomb structure, is given in fig. 7.
Fig. 4, the under, and fig. 5, the upper surface, of a small coral (_Cyclolites ?_) from the Oolite.
Fig. 6. A silicified branched sponge, (_Spongites lobatus_, of Dr. Fleming,) from the chalk of Berkshire.
Fig. 9, is a beautiful silicified, lobate, spongoid body, (_Siphonia_,) probably from the greensand. Siliceous cruciform spicula obtained from this fossil are represented in fig. 8.
Zoophytes of this kind, like many of the sponges, have their tissues strengthened by, and largely composed of spicula, which vary in form and size in the different species and genera. Many sponges and Siphoniæ in flint, and in the chert of the greensand, consist almost entirely of spicula, which may be easily detected by a slightly magnifying power.
Fig. 10. Another common Dudley Coral. (_Porites pyriformis_, of Mr. Lonsdale.)
Fig. 11. A beautiful coral (_Explanaria flexuosa_, of Dr. Fleming), from the Coral Rag of Steeple Ashton, Wilts. The outline indicates the mode of increase, according to Mr. Parkinson, of this form of zoophyte.
Fig. 12. This is a portion of a delicate ramose sponge (_Spongites ramosus_, of Mantell), whose remains are abundant in the chalk-flints, and have given rise to the irregularly branched siliceous nodules. A specimen nine inches long, with seven branches, is figured in Fossils of the South Downs, Pl. XV. fig. 11. Siliceous spicula are thickly interspersed throughout the mass.
PLATE XL.
Fossil Corals, &c.
Fig. 1. The shells of Oysters, and other mollusca, are subjected to the ravages of a parasitical sponge, (_Cliona_, of Dr. Grant,) which is beset with minute siliceous spines or spicula, and inhabits hollows formed in the substance of the shell. Shells thus honeycombed, as it were, may often be found on the sea-shore with the excavated parts filled up by sponge. I have shells collected by my eldest son on the shores of New Zealand, that are hollowed out in a similar manner, and occupied by sponge. Whether these cavities are produced by mechanical means, or are the result of the decay and absorption of the shell induced by the growth of the parasite, are questions still undetermined. There are several kinds of shells found fossil, which were infested with a similar parasitical sponge; and when the cavities thus produced have been filled up by flint, and the shell has subsequently decomposed, or been worn away, the surface of the flint is studded with the casts of the cells, in the form of small irregular globular bodies, connected by filaments or strings of flint. The fossil, fig. 1, is a fossil of this kind, described by Mr. Parkinson as being "covered with minute round bodies, the nature of which is unknown;" fig. 12, is an enlarged view of five of these globular casts connected by filaments.
The origin of these fossils was first pointed out by the Rev. W. Conybeare.[29] The fibrous shells of a fossil genus of bivalves named _Inoceramus_, of which several species abound in the Chalk, appear to have been particularly subjected to depredations of this kind. Hence among partially water-worn flints, specimens of the siliceous casts are common; figs. 8, and 10, are examples from the Hackney gravel-pits.
[Footnote 29: See Medals of Creation, vol. i. p. 396, fig. 94.]
Mr. Morris has named these fossils, _Clionites_; fig. 1, is _C. Parkinsoni_.
Figs. 2, 4, 7, are portions of a recent species of jointed zoophyte (_Isis_), from a modern concretionary deposit on the shores of the Mediterranean, Sicily.
Fig. 3. A branched fossil coral (_Millepora ramosa_, of Dr. Fleming), imbedded in compact oolitic limestone from Wiltshire. A portion of the surface magnified is represented in fig. 11.
Fig. 5, appears to be a fungiform Spongite; its locality is not mentioned.
Fig. 6. Portion of a fossil coral (_Ceriopora_), from Switzerland.
Figs. 8, & 10. These pebbles have the surface covered with casts of Clionites (_Clionites Conybeari_, of Mr. Morris.[30])
[Footnote 30: Mr. Morris thus defines the generic character of these fossil bodies:--"Reticular masses of a more or less compressed globular, elliptical, or polygonal form; rugose and sometimes papillose; connected by minute tubuli or fibrillæ. Dendritical, dichotomous, or irregularly aggregated." _Clionites Conybeari_ is characterized by "Cells irregular, somewhat polygonal, with one or more papillæ; surface finely tuberculated, connecting threads numerous." Note from Mr. Morris, April, 1850.
The fossils, however, do not appear to be the silicified sponge (_Cliona_) by which the ravages in the shell have been effected; they are merely casts of the cavities produced.]
Fig. 9. Fragments of the radicle processes of attachment of some Apiocrinite or Lily-shaped animal in chalk; see description of Plate LI.
Fig. 14. A section of a siliceous nodule; probably the cellular appearance is inorganic: fig. 13, is a magnified section of the cells.
PLATE XLI.
A Silicified cup-shaped Sponge, from Touraine.
(_Chenendopora Parkinsoni_, of Michelin. _Spongites Townsendi_, of Mantell.)
This beautiful plate of a petrified zoophyte allied to the Spongia, formed the frontispiece to Mr. Parkinson's second volume. The fossil delineated is from Touraine in France, and is one of the most perfect examples of this kind hitherto observed. It belongs to a group of cup-shaped _Amorphozoa_, (as these organisms are now named by naturalists, from the great irregularity of shape which they assume,) termed _Chenendopora_. The original organic substance is transmuted into silex, and the interstices are filled up with carbonate of lime. The same species occurs in the greensand in the Vale of Pewsey in Wiltshire, and, I believe, also in the white-chalk; for many cyathiform flints from the South Downs appear to have the same internal structure.
In the so-called "gravel-pits," near Faringdon, in Berkshire,--which are quarries of a loosely-aggregated grit of the greensand, almost wholly made up of the relics of shells, corals, amorphozoa, &c.--numerous sponges of this genus are met with. One beautiful species (_Chenendopora fungiformis_) has acquired, from its cup-like form, the local name of "petrified salt-cellar."[31]
[Footnote 31: Wonders of Geology, vol. ii. p. 637; and Medals of Creation, "Excursion to Faringdon," vol. ii. p. 923.]
PLATE XLII.
The Fossils represented in this Plate are chiefly Zoophytes in Flint.
Fig. 1. A flint from the gravel-pits at Hackney. Its form is derived from the enclosed zoophyte, part of whose structure is exposed in the upper portion of the figure. This fossil zoophyte (_Choanites Königi_, of Mantell) is very abundant in some of the chalk strata, and many of the most beautifully marked pebbles cut and polished for brooches by the lapidaries of Brighton, Bognor, and the Isle of Wight, are the silicified soft parts of this animal. The original was of a subglobular form, and probably of a soft fleshy consistence; it had a deep central cavity, whence numerous tubes diverged, and ramified throughout the mass; it was fixed at the base by radicle or root-like processes.[32]
[Footnote 32: See Medals of Creation, p. 264. "Thoughts on a Pebble," (eighth edition,) contains coloured figures and a full description of these fossils.]
Fig. 2. This is another characteristic and abundant fossil zoophyte of the chalk and flint. The specimen figured is a water-worn pebble, and therefore gives but obscure indications of the form and structure of the original. The fungiform flints--called in Sussex petrified mushrooms--belong to the same genus (_Ventriculites_, of Mantell): and highly interesting specimens occur in which some part of the zoophyte is invested with flint, and the other part expanded in the chalk. The original was probably a polyparium--that is, the skeleton or support of an aggregation of coral-polypes--of a funnel shape, the polype-shells being situated on the inner surface: the base was attached by root-like fibres.[33] The polype-cells are cylindrical and regular, and clusters of beautiful casts of them often occur on flints.
[Footnote 33: Consult Medals of Creation, pp. 270-279: and Wonders of Geology, sixth edition, p. 638.]
Fig. 3. This specimen is described by Mr. Parkinson as "a pear-shaped alcyonite from Switzerland." It is probably one of those fossil zoophytes allied to the sponges (called _Siphonia_), in which the upper part is of a bulbous or pear-like form, and is supported by a stem with root-like processes at the base. The bulb has a central cavity studded with irregular pores, that communicates with the parallel longitudinal tubes of which the stem is composed: a structure admitting of that ready ingress and egress of the sea-water, which this class of organisms requires. There are numerous species in the greensand of the chalk formation.[34]
[Footnote 34: Medals of Creation, p. 258, Lign. 56.]
Fig. 4. A variety of Siphonia (_Jerea excavata_, of Michelin), from the greensand of Wiltshire.
Fig. 5. A silicified Siphonia from Saumur.
Fig. 6. A Ventriculite from a gravel-pit; the markings are produced by the exposed and partially abraded outer integument, which in perfect examples consists of a regular net-work of sub-cylindrical fibres.
Fig. 7, is a transverse section of a Siphonia (_Siphonia pyriformis_ of Goldfuss).
Fig. 8. A nearly perfect specimen of a similar fossil. In fig. 7, are shown sections of tubes passing from the periphery to the centre; in fig. 8, the central aperture of the cavity of the bulb, and part of the stem, are displayed.
Figs. 9, & 10, are imperfect specimens of Choanites: fig. 10, is a vertical section showing the central cavity and the connected tubes.
Fig. 11, is another example of _Siphonia pyriformis_.
Fig. 12, a vertical, and fig. 13, a transverse section, of the same species of Siphonia.
Fig. 14. A small turbinated calcareous spongite from Switzerland.
Fig. 15. The appearance of the animal membrane exposed by immersion of the fossil (fig. 14), in diluted hydrochloric acid.
PLATE XLIII.
Fossil Corals, and other Zoophytes.
Figs. 1, 2, 3, & 4, are representations of different aspects of a simple coral (_Fungia polymorpha_, of Goldfuss); the locality is uncertain. Fig. 1, the base; fig. 2, a magnified representation of part of the same; fig. 3, magnified view of part of the lamellated surface of fig. 4.
Fig. 5. The nature of this fossil is not obvious; it may be a rolled Siphonia.
Fig. 6, is a fine specimen of a Siphonia (_Jerea pyriformis_, of Lamouroux). At both extremities the apertures of the numerous tubuli are seen.
Figs. 7, 8, & 9, are varieties of the same species of fossil sponge (_Scyphia articulata_, of Goldfuss), from Switzerland.
Fig. 10. A spongite of a very peculiar form.
Fig. 11. A spongite investing a fossil shell (_Nerita_), from Faringdon.
Fig. 12, is an imperfect specimen of a Ventriculite (_Ventriculites alcyonoides_, of Mantell), from the chalk of Wiltshire.
Fig. 13. A calcareous spongite which has been immersed in dilute hydrochloric acid to show its structure.
Fig. 14. A pebble deriving its shape from a zoophyte apparently related to the Ventriculites (_Spongites labyrinthicus_, of Mantell). The aperture at the base has arisen from the decomposition of the process of attachment.
Fig. 15. A pebble enclosing part of the base of a Ventriculite; the circular spots on the large end are sections of the ramifications of the stirps or base of the zoophyte; for this figure and the following are drawn in an inverted position.
Fig. 16, is a similar fossil, split vertically, and showing the enclosed stem of the Ventriculite.
PLATE XLIV.
Fossil Zoophytes.
Fig. 1. A spongite (_Scyphia costata_, of Goldfuss), from Switzerland. The fossil spongeous bodies named _Scyphia_, are characterized by the "mass or body being either cylindrical, simple or branched; fistulous, and terminating in a rounded pit; entirely composed of a firm reticulated tissue."[35] Like the other bodies comprised in the group of Amorphozoa, the form in this genus is exceedingly diversified, and as the structure is often but obscurely shown, the determination of these fossils is oftentimes impossible. It is however convenient, in the present state of our knowledge, to distinguish the principal kinds by names which may be modified or abandoned, when the structure and natural affinities of the original organisms are more accurately determined.
[Footnote 35: Medals of Creation, p. 237.]
Fig. 2. Another species of Scyphia from Switzerland; a small portion of the surface magnified is seen at _a_.
Fig. 3. The peculiar form and tissue of another genus of Amorphozoa (_Cnemidium rimulosum_, of Goldfuss), are shown in this beautiful specimen.
Fig. 4, is a section of a chalk flint, from Wycombe Heath; the purple body, partially invested by a white border, is evidently a mass of the soft parts of some zoophyte, which served as a nucleus to the siliceous nodule. A purple or pink hue often prevails in the sections of zoophytes immersed in flint, and doubtless depends on the original colour of the living animal.
Fig. 5. A very fine spongite (_Chenendopora fungiformis_, of Michelin), from France.
Fig. 6. This is evidently a fossil zoophyte, but the structure exposed is not sufficiently characteristic to determine the genus.
Fig. 7. A beautiful fungiform Scyphia.
Fig. 8. This elegant specimen, which Mr. Parkinson highly valued, is evidently a _Choanite_ imbedded in flint. The body retains a pink colour, and is surrounded by a white band, which is probably the remains of the cortical or external tissue of the original zoophyte. I have seen many transverse sections in which the central mass was either of a pink or purple colour, and encircled by a white zone, in the squared flints of the walls of churches and other ancient edifices in Sussex.[36]
[Footnote 36: Polished specimens of the pebbles of the Isle of Wight, exhibiting sections of the Choanites, Ventriculites, &c., may be obtained of _Mr. Fowlestone_, Lapidary, 4, Victoria Arcade, Ryde; who also has generally on sale a good series of the fossils of the Island. The minute organisms that occur in flints, many of which are highly interesting objects when seen by transmitted light under a good microscope, can be procured of _Mr. Topping_, that well-known preparer of microscopic objects, New Winchester Street, Pentonville Hill; and fossil infusorial earths, &c. in great perfection of _Mr. Poulton_, Microscopic Artist, Reading, Berks.]
PLATE XLV.
Fossil Corals and other Zoophytes.
Fig. 1. "A fossil body, from near Bath, the surface of which is covered by stelliform markings, which seem to have been formed by a coralloid."--_Parkinson._ This fossil is supposed by Mr. Morris to be the cast of one of those mollusca which form and inhabit hollows in stone, coral, &c. (hence termed _Lithodomi_). In the present instance, the mollusk had bored into a mass of coral, the imprints of the stellular polype-cells of which remain on the surface of the cast. It closely resembles fig. 3, Plate XXXVI. of Faujas St. Fond, Hist. Mont. St. Pierre, which is described as a coral; it is the _Astrea geometrica_, of Goldfuss.
Fig. 2. A fossil coral from Maestricht. At _b_, is shown an enlarged view of one of the stars.
Fig. 3. "A siliceous fossil from Essex."--_Mr. Parkinson._ (_Ventriculites racemosus_, of Mr. Toulmin Smith.) I must confess myself unable to determine the nature of this specimen.
Figs. 4, & 6. Corals from the cretaceous strata of St. Peter's Mountain, Maestricht (_Gorgonia bacillaris ?_ of Goldfuss). At _a_, is shown one of the cells in fig. 6, magnified.
Fig. 5. A pebble, split asunder, exposing the remains of a spongite, which formed the nucleus of the flint.[37]
[Footnote 37: For an account of the formation of flint, see Wonders of Geology, vol. i. p. 300. (_6th Edition._)]
Fig. 7. Another spongite in a pebble; from Sewardstone, Essex.
Fig. 8. A water-worn, silicified, or rather chalcedonic Ventriculite, from France.
Fig. 9. A very beautiful transverse section of the stem of a Ventriculite in a flint; the colour of the original being retained. This was another precious gem in the estimation of the amiable author of "The Organic Remains of a Former World."
Fig. 10. A portion of a Choanite in flint; from gravel, Islington.
Fig. 11. A perfect specimen of a small simple coral (Fungia), from Maestricht.
Fig. 12. A spongite in a pebble; similar to fig. 5. Such specimens are very common in the shingle along the sea-shore at Brighton, Dover, &c.
Fig. 13. A fossil coral in limestone, from Maestricht. It is too imperfectly defined to determine the species or genus; an enlarged sketch of the structure is given at _c_.
PLATE XLVI.
Pentacrinus.
Fig. 1. Specimen of a recent _Pentacrinus Caput Medusæ_, from the Caribbean Sea.
The Lily-shaped animals (_Crinoidea_), so named from a fancied resemblance of some species when in a state of repose to a closed lily, may be compared to a Feather-star (_Comatula_) fixed to a jointed column, with its mouth upwards; the base of the stem being attached to the rock by root-like processes. The only known living genus inhabits the seas of the West Indies, and the specimen figured represents the body (or upper part of the animal), with a considerable portion of the stem remaining attached. The Crinoidea are divided into two groups; Encrinites, having the ossicula (little bones) of the stem rounded, and Pentacrinites, in which the ossicula of the column are pentagonal, or angular. The Crinoidea are characterized by having a fixed base, a column or stem composed of numerous separate articulated pieces of a solid calcareous substance, supporting on its summit a vase, or receptacle, formed by a series of closely adjusted plates, which contain the body, or viscera. The upper part of the receptacle is covered by a plated integument, on one side of which an aperture or mouth is placed. From the upper margin proceed five articulated tentacula or arms, which subdivide into branches that in some species are very numerous and of extreme tenuity. On the inside, the arms are beset with articulated cirri or feelers. The joints composing the column are perforated by a central opening; there are also side-arms, that radiate from the column in groups of five at different points. When the animal is alive, the skeleton is covered by a soft integument, as in the star-fishes, and the arms spread out and expand, forming a net, by which living prey is captured and conveyed to the mouth by the tentacula, in the same manner as in the fresh-water polype or Hydra.
The fossil remains of Crinoidea consist of the ossicula of the column, arms, and tentacula; of the plates of the vase, or receptacle; and of the peduncle, or base of attachment. This family of Radiaria, though now of such excessive rarity, swarmed in the seas that deposited the ancient secondary strata; whole mountain chains and extensive tracts of country are composed of strata almost entirely made up of their fossil remains.[38] The number and species of genera is very great.
[Footnote 38: Wonders of Geology, vol. ii. p. 645. Medals of Creation, p. 312.]
Fig. 2, is a remarkably beautiful specimen of the receptacle of a Pentacrinite from Gloucestershire, showing the arms introverted, as if the animal had suddenly perished while in the act of closing over its prey; the stem is wanting.
Fig. 3. A spongite (_Chenendopora subplana_, of Michelin) from the greensand of the Vale of Pewsey, in Wiltshire.
PLATE XLVII.
Fossil Remains of Crinoidea.
In this beautiful plate Mr. Parkinson has figured a great variety of ossicula and portions of stems belonging to many species and genera of Crinoidea; the markings or sculpturing on the articulating surfaces of the columnar ossicula are represented with great accuracy. It is not within the plan of this work to give detailed descriptions of these numerous detached parts; a few of the most interesting objects only will be particularized.
The specimens figured in the upper part of the plate, figs. 1 to 28, are cylindrical ossicula, and portions of stems of Encrinites: those in the lower division are for the most part pentagonal, and therefore belong to Pentacrinites.
Fig. 24. The "Tortoise Encrinite," of Mr. Parkinson, (_Marsupites Milleri_, of Mantell,) from the chalk of Kent. The specimen figured is the receptacle or body of a very remarkable crinoideal animal which forms the link that unites the Lily-shaped animals with the Star-fishes; like the former, the receptacle is composed of articulated plates, closed at the top by a tessellated plate-work with a buccal aperture, and surrounded by five flexible arms; but the original animal, like the Star-fishes, was destitute of a stem, and could float through the water at pleasure. Its true structure was first pointed out by me in 1822;[39] the name Marsupite was suggested by the purse-like form. In the figure, the base of the receptacle is uppermost. Fig. 30, is a single plate of a Marsupite attached to a piece of chalk.
[Footnote 39: See "Fossils of the South Downs."]
Figs. 31, 35, 38, 39, 40, 41, 74, 75, 76, 77. These are portions of a small species of Encrinite (_Apiocrinus ellipticus_) peculiar to the white chalk, in some localities of which the detached ossicula and peduncles are abundant. At Northfleet, near Gravesend, these fossils are often met with. Figs. 75, and 76, are portions of the receptacle with part of the column; figs. 31, 38, and 39, are parts of the processes of attachment. I have never seen any specimen with the arms.[40]
[Footnote 40: Medals of Creation, p. 321.]
Fig. 34. This is part of the receptacle and stem of another small chalk Encrinite (_Bourgeticrinus_, of D'Orbigny) from Kent; it is remarkable for the very slight increase in bulk of the receptacle, and the peculiar form of the plates of which it is composed.
Figs. 36 & 37. Two views of the receptacle of a very remarkable crinoidean animal (_Pentremites florealis_, of Say), from the cherty carboniferous limestone of Kentucky. This zoophyte, though resembling the Crinoidea in having a plated receptacle supported by an articulated stem, has a remarkable affinity to the Sea-urchins (_Echinidæ_) in the porous bands and pentagonal aperture, and in being destitute of arms or tentacula. Some of the Kentucky limestone beds swarm with the remains of these zoophytes.[41]
[Footnote 41: Medals of Creation, p. 327.]
Fig. 47. "Two ossicula of the Lily Encrinite immersed in diluted muriatic acid, by which the animal membrane was exposed, and is seen hanging in flocculæ from the bottom of the fossil,"--_Mr. Parkinson._
Figs. 57, 64, 66. Part of the stem, and the articulating surfaces of two ossicles of a very elegant pentacrinite (_Pentacrinus scalaris_, of Goldfuss), from the Lias of Lyme Regis.
Figs. 53, 56, 59, 61, 62, 63, 65, 67. Portions of stems, and the various modifications of the ossicula of another Lias Pentacrinite (_Pentacrinus basaltiformis_, of Goldfuss).
Fig. 79. This elegant little crinoidean receptacle was named the "Clove Encrinite," by Mr. Parkinson, from its form; (_Eugeniacrinus caryophyllatus_, of Goldfuss). It is from the Oolite of Mount Randen, in Switzerland.[42]
[Footnote 42: Ibid. p. 327.]
Figs. 80, 81, 82, & 83. Appear to be fossil corals of the genus Ceriopora.
PLATE XLVIII.
The Lily Encrinite (_Encrinites monileformis_).
This exquisite species of the extinct Crinoideans which swarmed in the seas of the secondary ages of Geology, is equally interesting and attractive to the amateur collector and the scientific observer. The specimen figured is a charming example of the "_Stone Lily_" partly expanded, attached to a block of limestone studded with encrinal ossicula. Mr. Parkinson informed me that it was formerly in the collection of Mr. Jacob Forster, and cost him twenty guineas; from five to ten guineas is now the usual price for a specimen in a good state of preservation, with any part of the column attached. This Encrinite is not known to occur in England. The specimens seen in collections are for the most part from Lower Saxony: this species has only been found in the limestone strata called "_Muschelkalk_" one of the subdivisions of the _Trias_, or New Red Sandstone formation, of Germany.[43] The most celebrated locality of these fossils is in Brunswick, near the village of Erkerode, about two miles from the town bearing the same name. The bed in which they are found is a soft argillaceous cream-coloured limestone, about one foot and a half in thickness; and the stone is composed chiefly of trochites, or detached ossicula of the stems, and a few fragile shells and corals.
[Footnote 43: Medals of Creation, vol. i. p. 322. Wonders of Geology, vol. ii. pp. 534, 549.]
An elaborate account of the structure of the skeleton of the Lily Encrinite is given by Mr. Miller, in his valuable work, "The Natural History of the Lily-shaped Animals," (1 vol. 4to. 1821.) Mr. Parkinson had previously carefully investigated the different parts which enter into the composition of the receptacle and column, and had given them names analogous to those employed to designate the bones of the skeleton in vertebrated animals. This nomenclature has very properly been abandoned; but I subjoin Mr. Parkinson's description of the figures, to record his ingenuity and skill in dissecting organic remains:--
"Fig. 1, The Lily Encrinite, with part of its vertebral column attached. In this specimen is seen the extensive capacity for motion yielded by the peculiar form of the vertebra; in the superior part of the column; and by the fortunate removal of a portion of the fingers, a fair view is given of the natural arrangement of the tentacula.
Fig. 2. The pentagonal base, composed of the ossa innominata, and forming with the scapulæ and clavicles, the pelvis, in which were contained the organs of digestion, &c.
Fig. 3. The Lily Encrinite, detached from its vertebral column.
_a_, the centre of its base, formed by five cuneiform ossicula, or _ossa innominata_.
a, one of the _ossa innominata_ detached.
_b_, the ribs, or _articuli trapezoides_; forming, with the preceding bones, the pentagonal base.
b, one of the ribs detached, showing its internal surface.
_c_, the clavicles.
c 1, the interior surface.
c 2, the superior surface.
_d_, the scapulæ.
d 1, the inferior surface.
d 2, the superior surface.
_e_, the arms.
f, the two first bones of the arms united.
_g, h, i, k, l, m_, the bones of the fingers gradually diminishing.
Fig. 4. Part of the supposed base, or organ of attachment, of the Lily Encrinite.
Fig. 5. The supposed base, or organ of attachment, of the '_Cap Encrinite_.'"
PLATE XLIX.
Remains of Encrinites.
Fig. 1. A polished slab of limestone formed of portions of the stems of encrinites; the white figures are produced by sections of the calcareous spar into which the ossicula are transmuted. The dark spots are the cavities of the entrochites, filled with mineral matter of a different colour.
Fig. 2, is the pentagonal base of the receptacle of the Derbyshire Encrinite.
Fig. 3. A mass of Derbyshire encrinal marble, with numerous portions of stems lying in relief.
The Derbyshire encrinal marble is so extensively employed in the manufacture of tables, chimney-pieces, vases, &c., that it must be familiar to every reader; and yet probably but few are aware of its origin, or of the nature of the fossil remains of which it is composed, and that give rise to the elegant figures in which its beauty consists. On Middleton Moor, near Matlock, extensive quarries of this marble are worked, and good specimens of the ossicula and stems may be easily obtained.[44]
[Footnote 44: See Medals of Creation for "A Geological Excursion from Matlock to Middleton Moor, returning by Stonnis," p. 968.]
Fig. 4. Part of the stem of a large Encrinite, (_Cyathocrinus rugosus_, of Miller,) from the Wenlock limestone, Dudley.
Fig. 5. A fine specimen of the lower part of the stem, and the root-like processes of attachment of the base, of the same species as fig. 4: from Dudley.
Fig. 6, is called the "_Screw or Pulley-stone_" of Derbyshire. These curious fossils are found in the chert (a kind of flint) which occurs in veins and layers in some of the limestone strata: they are siliceous casts of the interior cavities of the stems, and small branches of ossicula, of Encrinites. Plate XL VII. fig. 10, is a detached specimen of this kind.
Fig. 7, is described by Mr. Parkinson as "a piece of marble from Shropshire, in which is discovered a part of the pentagonal base of the Turban or Shropshire Encrinite."
Fig. 8, is part of the column of the same species. These specimens belong to the Rose Encrinite (_Rhodocrinus verus_, of Miller).
Fig. 9. The receptacle of a very remarkable form of Encrinite, called by Mr. Parkinson "the _Cap Encrinite_ of Derbyshire." I can find no notice of this beautiful and unique specimen in the work of Miller or of subsequent authors; neither am I aware of any data by which a relation can be established between this receptacle and the ossicula and stems, so abundant in the carboniferous limestone of Derbyshire.
PLATE L.
Encrinites and Pentacrinites.
The Pear Encrinite of Bradford; Mr. Parkinson.
(_Apiocrinus rotundus_, of Miller. ---- _Parkinsoni_, of Bronn.)
The most generally known of the British Crinoidea, from its size, and abundance in one particular locality, is the "_Pear Encrinite_" of Bradford in Wiltshire, some of the quarries of the oolite on the heights above that picturesquely-situated town, yielding not only immense quantities of detached plates and ossicula, but also numerous examples of the receptacle, and occasionally the entire skeleton from the peduncle of the base to the extremities of the arms. The lamented Mr. Channing Pearce, and his father (now of Percy Place, Grosvenor, Bath), when resident at Bradford, paid such unremitting attention to the collection of these fossils, that perfect specimens were obtained, exhibiting the entire structure of the originals; of these some fine examples are preserved in the British Museum. Sir Charles Lyell mentions a very interesting fact relating to the occurrence of these Crinoidea in the strata. He states that the upper surface of a bed of limestone at Bradford is incrusted with a continuous pavement formed by the stony roots of the Apiocrinites; and upon this is a layer of clay in which are the stems and bodies (receptacles) of innumerable examples; some erect, others lying prostrate; while throughout the clay are scattered detached arms, stems, and receptacles. This submarine forest of Crinoideans must therefore have flourished in the clear sea-water till invaded by a current loaded with mud, which overwhelmed the living zoophytes, and entombed them in the argillaceous deposit in which their remains are now imbedded.[45]
[Footnote 45: See Wonders of Geology, vol. ii. p. 653.]
The receptacle of this Apiocrinite is pyriform and very smooth, the plates are large and thin, with radiating articulated surfaces; the stem is short, smooth, and strong, the arms are simple, and like those of the Marsupite; the peduncle spreads out into an expanded base, which is firmly attached to the rock; sections of this part are generally of a purple colour.
Fig. 1. Part of the column of the Bradford Encrinite. 2. Part of the receptacle; a minute incrusting coral (_Bryozoa_) is attached to the lower part, giving the stem a rough appearance.
Figs. 3, & 4. Surface of detached plates of the receptacle.
Fig. 5. Portion of the column partly covered with a cortical covering of a purple colour possibly the original investing membrane.
Fig. 6. A receptacle, in which a few of the ossicula of the arms remain attached to the margin.
Fig. 7. Another receptacle, in which the plates called by Mr. Parkinson "clavicles and scapulæ," are retained in their natural positions.
Fig. 8. A receptacle, in which the principal plates are well defined: these are named by Mr. Parkinson as follow: _a_, clavicle; _b_, scapula; _c_, ossicula of the arms; _d_, the last series of the same. The ossicles forming the elongated tentacula, Mr. P. termed "_bones of the fingers_."
Fig. 9. Portion of an encrinital stem with digitated processes: the nature of this fossil is unknown to me.
Fig. 10. Three united ossicula of a Pentacrinite with depressions for side-arms: from the Lias of Lyme Regis.
Fig. 11. A distorted pentacrinal ossicle; said to be from Africa.
Figs. 12, & 14, are vertical polished sections of the peduncle, or base of the stem, of the Bradford Encrinite.
Fig. 13. Vertical section of the peduncle of a Pentacrinite from Soissons.
Fig. 15. A polished slab of pentacrinal marble from Charmouth, Dorsetshire.
Fig. 16. Variously contorted pentacrinal stems with numerous side-arms, from Charmouth.
PLATE LI.
Fossil Crinoidea, or Lily-shaped Animals.
Fig. 1. Part of the receptacle of the "_Nave Encrinite_" of Mr. Parkinson (_Actinocrinus_, of Miller). Mountain limestone.
Fig. 2. A portion of the receptacle of a "_Rose Encrinite_" (_Rhodocrinus_), viewed from the base.
Fig. 3. The "Nave Encrinite" (_Actinocrinus triacontadactylus_, or thirty-fingered, of Miller), from the mountain limestone. This is a good example of the structure of the receptacle in this group of Crinoideans, which is distinguished by the arms passing off at right angles from the periphery of the receptacle, like the spokes of a wheel; whence the name, Nave Encrinite. The upper part is covered by closely adapted plates, and the buccal aperture or mouth is situated at the side. The stem of this group is thickly beset with side-arms. (Fig. 7 is a very small detached one.) The arms are numerous (amounting to thirty in the species figured), and of great length; these subdivide into jointed filaments of extreme minuteness. Slabs of limestone are often entirely covered with them, and many layers are wholly made up of their aggregated remains. The plates of the receptacle are generally highly ornamented: in one species the sculpturing so closely resembles that of the _Marsupites ornatus_ of the chalk, that it was with difficulty I convinced Mr. Parkinson that the latter did not possess a stem, and therefore was not an Actinocrinite.[46]
[Footnote 46: See Medals of Creation, p. 325; Wonders of Geology, p. 664; Miller's Crinoidea, p. 94.]
Figs. 4, & 5. Portions of receptacles of Actinocrinites.
Figs. 6, & 8. Fragments of stems of a Pentacrinite (_Pentacrinus scalaris_, of Goldfuss); from Gloucestershire.
Fig. 9. A Pentacrinite expanded on a slab of Lias-shale. Gloucestershire.
Fig. 10. Stem, receptacle, and arms of a Crinoidean (probably a _Cyathocrinite_); it is drawn in an inverted position. The figure is stated by Mr. Parkinson to be copied "from a plate by Dr. Capeller." Neither the locality, nor the stratum from which it was obtained, is mentioned.
Fig. 11. Part of the stem of a Pentacrinite (_P. basaltiformis_, of Miller); from the Lias. Gloucestershire.
Fig. 12. The receptacle of a Crinoidean (_Platycrinus lævis_, of Miller); from the mountain limestone, Ireland. Fig. 13, ossicles of the arms; and fig. 14, joints of the stems, slightly magnified.
Fig. 15. "The superior part of the Briaræan pentacrinite."--_Mr. Parkinson._ (_Pentacrinus Briareus_, of Miller.) The specimen is a slab of Lias, almost wholly made up of crinoideal remains. In relief on the surface are the stems and dislocated ossicles of the receptacle; the latter are thus enumerated by Mr. Parkinson;--_a_, scapula; _b_, clavicle; _c_, first bone of the arm; _d_, second arm-bone; _e_, commencement of the two series of bones forming the fingers.
Fig. 16, is another slab of pentacrinal Lias limestone, with portions of a stem and numerous side-arms: these are generally electrotyped, as it were, with a brilliant pyrites, giving a rich metallic lustre to the animal remains. In the British Museum there are many splendid specimens of this highly interesting family of Radiaria. I would especially direct the intelligent visitor's attention to a slab of stone, many feet in height and breadth, on which a group of Pentacrinites is displayed, as palpable and perfect as if the animals were sporting in their native element. This matchless specimen is from Germany.
Fig. 17. One of the small auxiliary lateral tentacles of a Pentacrinite.
PLATE LII.
Pentacrinites.
Fig. 1. This specimen displays the usual appearance of the mode in which the arms of Pentacrinites are spread out in relief on the pyritous lias limestone of Charmouth.
Fig. 2. The arms, from the upper part of the receptacle to their third or fourth subdivision of the Briaræan Pentacrinite. Charmouth.
Fig. 3. A small specimen, showing the ramifications and delicacy of the extremities of the arms or tentacula.
Fig. 4. "A fossil body, supposed to be a species of oval encrinite."--_Mr. Parkinson._ This fossil is certainly a coral, probably some species of Turbinolia, from the Devonian formation.
PLATE LIII.
Fossil Star-Fishes and Echini.
The radiated animals popularly called Star-fishes, from their stellular figure, are so abundant along our sea shores, that the nature of the common five-rayed species (_Asterias_, or _Uraster rubens_)[47] must be familiar to most of my readers. This species belongs to the group in which the rays are elongated, and far exceed in length the diameter of the disk; in another subdivision (the _Goniaster_, or Cushion-star), the body is angular, and the lobes or rays are short, and do not exceed in length the diameter of the body. In another group (the _Comatula_, or Feather-star), the rays are fringed with long jointed tentacula, which divide and subdivide like those of the Crinoidea; and these star-fishes may, in fact, be regarded as free Lily-shaped animals.[48] There is another tribe in which the arms are elongated into slender rays, without grooves or tentacula; these are called the Serpent Star-fishes (_Ophiura_). Species of all these groups occur in a fossil state.[49]
[Footnote 47: See Professor Forbes's delightful "History of the British Star-Fishes."]
[Footnote 48: In the young state the Comatulæ have a jointed stem, and are attached to other bodies; being in this stage true Crinoideans.]
[Footnote 49: Medals of Creation, p. 332.]
Fig. 1. "Part of a fossil lunated star from the chalk of Kent."--_Mr. Parkinson._ (_Goniaster semilunata_, of Parkinson; _Goniaster Parkinsoni_, of Prof. E. Forbes). Remains of Star-fishes are by no means rare in the chalk strata of Kent; in those of Sussex they are far less common. When the "Fossils of the South Downs" was published, in 1822, a few fragments only had been discovered. Of late years, some beautiful examples have been obtained from the chalk-pits near Arundel and Worthing, by Mr. Dixon, Mr. Coombe, Mrs. Smith, of Tunbridge Wells, and other collectors. The cabinet of the Marquess of Northampton is very rich in this class of fossils. Several unique examples of new species have been obtained from the chalk near Maidstone.
Fig. 2. "An echinite, from France."--_Mr. Parkinson._ The locality of this fossil is uncertain; no similar specimen is known either to Mr. Morris, or the other eminent palæontologists I have consulted; and the original cannot be discovered. I have reason to believe it was purchased, after Mr. Parkinson's death, together with the greater number of the fossils already described, by an American gentleman, and taken to the United States.
Fig. 3. "Part of a stellite or fossil star-fish, resembling _Pentagonaster regularis_."--_Mr. Parkinson._ This well-known chalk species (_Goniaster Mantelli_, of Prof. E. Forbes), occurs frequently in an imperfect state in the quarries near Gravesend. The collection of the Marquess of Northampton contains a perfect and exquisite specimen attached to a flint, from that locality.
Fig. 4. A beautiful example of the Turban Echinite (_Cidaris Parkinsoni_, of Dr. Fleming), from Wiltshire.
The _Cidaris_, or Turban Echinite, belongs to the family of radiated animals, of which the recent Sea-urchin (_Echinus sphæra_) is a well-known example. The globular shell or envelope of these animals is composed of numerous calcareous polygonal plates, arranged in regular and elegant patterns, like the lines of the meridian on a globe. These plates are externally covered with papillæ of various sizes, to which spines of corresponding magnitude are articulated. In some of the _Cidares_ the principal tubercles are very large, and their spines several inches in length. The number and variety of the animals of this family that occur in a fossil state are so great, that a work expressly devoted to the subject would be required to thoroughly investigate the characters and relations of the known species. An elementary knowledge of this class of fossil remains may be obtained by reference to "Medals of Creation," chap. xi. p. 240.
Fig. 5. Part of the case of a Cidaris attached to a flint by its outer surface, surrounded by upwards of twenty spines; the interior of the shell, of a light pink colour, is exposed. This exquisite fossil is now in the cabinet of the Marquess of Northampton. It was purchased by Mr. Parkinson for the sum of twenty guineas; but this was in the palmy days of the study of organic remains, before the terms Geology and Palæontology were invented, and when a choice relic of "a former world" was cheap at any price, in the opinion of the enthusiastic collector.
Fig. 6. A Turban Echinite (_Cidaris_ (_Hemicidaris_, of Agassiz) _crenularis_, of Lamarck): from the Coral Rag of Wiltshire.
Fig. 7. A siliceous cast--that is, a flint that has been moulded in the interior of the shell, and received the impress of the internal structure--of "_Cidaris corollaris_," of Parkinson; (_Cyphosoma correlare_, of Agassiz): from Sussex.
Fig. 8. Cidaris with spines, from the Oolite of Stonesfield.
Fig. 9. A specimen of one of the Cidares with large tubercles (_Cidaris coronatus_, of Goldfuss); from the Coral Rag, Oxfordshire.
Fig. 10. An elegant chalk echinus (_Cidaris Königi_, of Mantell;[50] _Cyphosoma Milleri_, of Agassiz; _C. granulosus_, of Goldfuss): from Kent.
[Footnote 50: Fossils of the South Downs, p. 189. (1822.)]
Fig. 11. A fine species from the chalk at Gravesend (_Cidaris vesiculosus_, of Goldfuss).
Fig. 12. A peculiar type of Cidaris (_Salenia scutigera_, of Goldfuss), from the freestone or upper greensand of Warminster, Wilts.
Fig. 13. Another species of the same genus (_Salenia stellulata_, of Agassiz); from Warminster.
Fig. 14. An enlarged view of part of the structure around the vertex of fig. 13.
Fig. 15. A species of Feather-star (_Comatula pectinata_, of Goldfuss); from Solenhofen.
Figs. 17, 18, 19, 20. "Minute _Stellitæ_ (that is, fossil Star-fish); from Verona."--_Mr. Parkinson._ These are probably the bodies or disks of _Ophiuræ_ deprived of their arms.
Fig. 16. The nature of the specimen figured is unknown to me.
PLATE LIV.
Various Species of Fossil Sea-Urchins.
Fig. 1. A large, discoidal echinite, of the type called _Clypeus_ or _Shield-echinus_, (_Clypeus sinuatus_, of Leske,) from the Coral Rag of Oxfordshire. This species abounds in the beds of this division of the Oolite in Berkshire, Wiltshire, Gloustershire, &c.
Fig. 2. "_Echinanthites orbicularis_ (_Pygurus_) of Leske."--Mr. Parkinson.
Fig. 3. An imperfect flint cast of an echinus (_Discoidea_), from the South Downs.
Fig. 4. The Helmet Echinite, (_Ananchytes ovatus_, of Lamarck,) from the Chalk of Kent. This is a characteristic species of the white chalk, and abounds in the strata of the North and South Downs. At Northfleet, near Gravesend, the quarry-men find beautiful specimens.
Fig. 5. An oval echinite (_Nucleolites_,) from Verona.
Fig. 6. A portion of a very flat echinite, in which the rays or ambulacra are in a floriform arrangement, (_Echinodiscus bisperforatus_, of Parkinson; _Lobophora biperforata_, of Desor,) from Tertiary Strata, Verona.
Fig. 7. A small discoidal echinite (_Discoidea subuculus_, of Leske,) from the upper greensand of Warminster.
Fig. 8. The floriform radiated part of the shell of an echinite (_Clypeaster_), from the tertiary strata of Malta.
Fig. 9. A cast in flint of part of the interior of the case or shell of an echinite.
Fig. 10. An elegant conical echinite (_Conulus albogalerus_, of Leske; _Galerites_, of Agassiz), common in the chalk of Kent and Sussex.
Fig. 11. View of the base of fig. 10, showing the situation of the two apertures of the shell.
PLATE LV.
Fossil Sea-Urchins, or Echinites.
Fig. 1. The shell of a Turban Echinite (_Cidaris saxatilis_, of Parkinson), broken in two, and each piece imbedded in the same fragment of flint. From Kent.
Fig. 2. A round Buckler Echinite (_Echinodiscus_ (_Clypeaster_) _subrotundus_, of Parkinson), from Italy.
Fig. 3. The upper surface of an Echinite (_Spatangites_ (_Disaster_, of Agassiz) _ovalis_, of Parkinson); from Scarborough.
Fig. 4. View of the upper, and fig. 5, of the lower surface of an Echinite, (_Spatangus_ (_Hemipneaster_, of Agassiz) _radiatus_, of Parkinson,) from the cretaceous strata of St. Peter's Mountain, Maestricht.
Fig. 6. A small Echinite (_Echinites_ (_Nucleolites_, of Leske) _pyriformis_, of Parkinson), from the cretaceous strata of Maestricht.
Fig. 7. A small Echinite of a different genus (_Echinites_ (_Cassidulus_, of Lamarck,) _Lapis cancri_, of Parkinson), from Maestricht.
Fig. 8. An Echinite (_Spatangites_ (_Nucleolites_) _brissoides ovalis_, of Parkinson). Locality unknown.
Fig. 9. A beautiful specimen of a large heart-shaped Echinite of a recent species (_Spatangus purpureus_), from a modern tertiary deposit, Malta.
Fig. 10. An Echinite (_Echinodiscus_ (_Clypeaster_) _laganum_, of Parkinson), from a tertiary deposit, Verona.
Fig. 11. This Is a very abundant Spatangus or heart-shaped echinite, (_Spatangus cor marinum_, of Parkinson; _Cor testudinarium,_ of Goldfuss; _Micraster cor anguinum_, of Agassiz,) in the chalk of Kent, and some parts of Sussex. Siliceous casts, forming cordiform flints, with deep imprints of the pentapetalous rays on the vertex, are common among the stones of the ploughed fields of the Downs.
Fig. 12. A _Spatangite_, (_Spatangus_ (_Micraster_, of Agassiz) _lacunosus_, of Parkinson), from tertiary strata, Malta,
PLATE LVI.
Echinites and Echinital Spines.
Fig. 1. A fragment of the shell of a Turban Echinite, with three clavated or club-shaped spines attached, on chalk, from Kent (_Cidaris claviger_, of König). The inner surface of the fragment of shell is exposed.
Fig. 2. A crushed shell of an elegant species of Turban Echinite (_Cidaris sceptrifera_, of Mantell), on a block of chalk; with two displaced spines near it. The sceptre-like form of the spines suggested the specific name. The chalk has been carefully cut away so as to display the shell and spines as much as possible without detaching them. From Sussex; common in the chalk near Gravesend.
Fig. 3. Part of the shell, with two spines of another species (_Cidaris vesiculosus_, of Goldfuss), from Kent.
Fig. 4. "A fossil echinital spine resembling a belemnite."--_Mr. Parkinson._ I am unable to determine either the species or locality of this fossil: it is indeed doubtful whether it is a spine of an echinus.
Figs. 5 to 19, represent various kinds of echinital spines of Turban Echinites or Cidarites.
Fig. 5. "A fossil spine named '_Bacolo di Santo Paulo_,' by Scilla."--_Mr. Parkinson._ From Verona.
Figs. 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, & 18, are, I believe, referable to various species of Cidaris that occur in the Oolite or Jurassic deposits.
Figs. 9 and 11. Species of _Cidaris glandiferus_, of Goldfuss.
Fig. 15, is a well known form, which occurs in thousands in the Oolite Limestone, the Coral Rag, of Caen, and other localities in Wiltshire; it belongs to a beautiful Cidarite (_Cidaris Blumenbachii_[51]), which is occasionally found with similar spines attached.
[Footnote 51: See Wonders of Geology, vol. ii. p. 500, figs. 3 and 6.]
Fig. 12. "A flat serrated spine from Verona."--_Mr. Parkinson._ It belongs to the _Cidaris Schmidelii_, of Goldfuss.
Fig. 7. The interior of the upper part or vertex of a large Echinus, from the tertiary strata of Malta. The greater portion of the shell is broken away, but a small fragment showing the outer surface remains on the upper left hand of the specimen. The five large petalous ambulacra are beautifully seen. Perfect examples of this echinite (_Echinanthus Clypeaster altus_, of Parkinson), are not uncommon.
Fig. 19. A spine of _Cidaris sceptrifera_, from the chalk of Kent.
Fig. 20. An elegant Turban Echinite, (_Hemicidaris crenularis_, of Lamarck,) common in the Coral Rag of Wiltshire. Groups of this beautiful echinoderm, with numerous spines attached, are found at Caen. I have seen on one slab of limestone, upwards of twenty individuals with the spines radiating round the shell, as if the animals were alive on a mud bank in shallow water.
Fig. 21. A fragment of the shell with two spines (_Cidaris claviger_), attached to a flint; from Kent.
PLATE LVII.
Fossil Shells.
Figs. 1, & 3. Upper and under view of a discoidal spiral univalve shell (_Euomphalus pentangulatus_, of Sowerby), from the mountain limestone of Derbyshire. The extinct genus Euomphalus, a name suggestive of the deeply excavated disk, comprises many species which occur in the Silurian, Devonian, and Carboniferous formations. The shell has chambers, or rather obsolete cavities sealed up by a shelly partition, in the abandoned part of the spire.[52]
[Footnote 52: Medals of Creation, pp. 425-427.]
Fig. 2. An elegant univalve shell, completely silicified or transmuted into flint (_Natica canrena_, of Parkinson, _Natica Gentii_, of Sowerby), from the upper greensand of Blackdown.
Figs. 4, & 6. Two views of the same specimen; a univalve (_Nerita conoidea_, of Lamarck), in which the apex or upper part is destroyed, and the interior of the shell is filled with yellowish brown chalcedony; in fig. 4, a cast of the spire is seen, and in fig. 6, the mouth of the shell, with the chalcedony partially filling up the interior. From tertiary strata near Paris.
Fig. 5. A beautiful fossil univalve shell, from the "Red Crag" of Suffolk, known to collectors as the "Essex reversed whelk," from the spire being coiled in the opposite direction to the common mode; the mouth is consequently situated to the left of the observer; the same species occurs with the spire in the usual direction. This shell is the _Murex_ (_Fusus_) _contrarius_, of Parkinson.
Figs. 7, & 8. Under and upper view of another species of Euomphalus (_E. rugosus_, of Sowerby), from the Wenlock limestone, Dudley.
Fig. 9. An enlarged view of fig. 10. "A shell of the genus _Sigaretus_."--_Mr. Parkinson._ Mr. Morris thinks it is merely an operculum of a small univalve.
Fig. 11. A chambered cephalopodous shell (_Lituites lituus_, of Hisinger), from Silurian strata, Sweden.
Figs. 12, & 13. These curious contorted bodies are named "_Vermiculitæ_" by Mr. Parkinson. They occur in the cream-coloured limestone of Pappenheim and Solenhofen. They are termed "_Lumbricaria colon_" by Goldfuss; and "_Cololites_" by M. Agassiz; the last-named eminent naturalist has demonstrated that they are the fossilized intestines of fishes.[53]
[Footnote 53: See Dr. Buckland's Bridgewater Essay, vol. ii. plate 15.]
PLATE LVIII.
Fossil Shells.
Fig. 1. "Part of a hexahedral Serpulite."--_Mr. Parkinson._
Fig. 2. A silicified mass of delicate filiform serpulæ, from the upper greensand of Devonshire (_Serpula filiformis_, of Sowerby).
Fig. 3. Portion of a species of _Siliquaria_, from tertiary strata, France. It is the shell of an Annelide related to _Dentalium_.
Fig. 5. A spiral Serpulite (it resembles the _Serpula conica_); probably from the cretaceous beds of the Isle of Rugen.
Fig. 6, is a piece of polished sandstone, from the upper greensand of Wiltshire, "the markings on which are produced by sections of a species of Serpula (_Vermetus concavus_, of Sowerby)."--_Mr. Morris._
Fig. 7. A species of _Vermetus_; from Bayonne?
Figs. 8, & 9. A species of _Vermetus_ which abounds in the coarse arenaceous limestone of Bognor Rocks, in Sussex (_Vermetus Bognoriensis_, of Sowerby).
Fig. 10. "A section of the shell of a Nautilus, to show that the siphuncle sometimes suffered distension."--_Mr. Parkinson._
Fig. 11. A species of Serpula (_Serpula ampullacea_, of Sowerby), from the chalk of Kent.
Fig. 12. A fragment of the back or dorsal part of the shell of a fossil Nautilus (_Nautilus centralis_, of Sowerby), from the London clay, Brentford. The outer shell is broken away, and the siphuncle, traversing five of the septa of the chambers, is exposed.
Fig. 13. "The outline of the back of a Nautilus."--_Mr. Parkinson._
Fig. 14. An Orthoceratite (_Orthoceras annulatum_, of Sowerby; _O. undulatum_, of Kissinger), from the Wenlock Limestone, Dudley.
Fig. 15. A fragment of a fossil Nautilus (_Nautilus Parkinsoni_, of Mr. Edwards), from the London clay of Harwich. It shows the situation of the siphuncle and the form of the septa, as indicated by the sinuous transverse lines.
Fig. 16. A polished section of a Nautilus (_N. truncatus_, of Sowerby), from the Inferior Oolite of Yeovil, Somersetshire. The chambers are filled up with crystalline limestone, with the exception of the six outermost cells, in which are left hollows that are lined with calcareous spar.
Fig. 17. Polished section of an Orthoceratite, from the Silurian strata of Oëland, Sweden.
Fig. 18. The discoidal part of a Lituite from the same locality as fig. 17.
Fig. 19. A polished slab of grey marble, from the Devonian formation of the Rhine. The figures are sections of _Orthoceratites_, _a_; and _Lituites_, _b_.
PLATE LIX.
Fossil Cephalopoda, &c.
Fig. 1. A fossil shell named Hippurite (_Hippurites bioculatus_, of D'Orbigny), from the south of France. This shell belongs to a family termed _Rudistes_, whose characters are somewhat problematical,--some naturalists referring them to the bivalves, and others to the univalves. The Hippurite is generally of an elongated conical form, and has internally two obtuse longitudinal ridges; the base is sometimes partitioned by transverse septa.
Fig. 5, is a longitudinal section of a specimen in which septa are displayed. The aperture is closed by a moveable operculum, or upper valve, as in the specimen fig. 1. The substance of the shell is cellular and very thick, and when fractured, resembles that of the lamelliferous corals. Some kinds attain a large size, and are called "petrified horns" by the inhabitants of the districts in the Pyrenees where they abound. Though Hippurites are abundant in the chalk of the south of France, and in Spain and Portugal, none have been found in England. The _Spherulite_, a nearly allied genus, which has no internal longitudinal ridges, occurs in the chalk of Sussex: it was first discovered near Lewes. (_Spherulites Mortoni_, of Mantell.)[54]
[Footnote 54: Medals of Creation, p. 428.]
Fig. 2. The siphuncle of a very large Orthoceratite ("related to the genus _Ormoceras_," Mr. Morris), from the Rhine.
Figs. 3 & 4, "show the direction in which the siphuncle in Orthoceratites intersects the septa."
Fig. 6. Siphuncle of an orthoceratite (related to _Orthoceras duplex_, of Kissinger), from the Silurian strata, Sweden.
Fig. 7. An Orthoceratite (_O. pyriforme_, of Sowerby), from the Silurian strata, Dudley.
Figs. 8-15. Various kinds of Belemnites.
In the "_Supplementary Notes_" I have, under the head, "_Belemnites_," explained somewhat fully the nature of those fossils which, by the name of "thunderbolts," have for so many centuries excited the interest and perplexed the ingenuity of collectors of fossil remains. Referring the reader to that note, I shall therefore in this place merely give such specific names of the specimens figured by Mr. Parkinson as I have been able to determine.
Fig. 8. "A Belemnite of large size," Mr. Parkinson. This specimen is part of the phragmocone from near the lower apical portion, partially invested with the fibrous rostrum or guard. It is the species named _Belemnites giganteus_ by M. D'Orbigny; from the Oxford clay of Wiltshire.
Fig. 9. The guard of a Belemnite, eroded by some Annelide.
Fig. 10, is a vertical section of a fragment of a Belemnite, showing the alveolus or cavity for the reception of the apex of the phragmocone in the upper part.
Fig. 11. The distal or apical part of the rostrum or guard of a Belemnite. The annexed outline of a transverse section exhibits the radiated structure.
Fig. 12. The distal part of the guard of a chalk Belemnite (_Belemnitella mucronata_); from Norwich. Siliceous casts of the phragmocone of _Belemnitella_ are occasionally met with in the flints of the South Downs. This phragmocone has a longitudinal flat band or ridge, extending down the dorsal aspect: the chambers are very numerous; the slit or fissure in the ventral aspect of the guard, is occupied by a thin expansion of the phragmocone.
Fig. 13. A Belemnite from the great oolite of Stonesfield (_Belemnites fusiformis_, of Parkinson). The upper part shows the alveolus for the reception of the apex of the phragmocone.
Fig. 14. A fragment of a guard split vertically, the flat surface showing a section of the alveolus filled with spar. This specimen belongs to the _Belemnites cylindriformis_, of Parkinson.
Fig. 15. A Belemnite (_Belemnites coniformis_, of Parkinson), having part of the guard broken off, to show the alveolus or hollow in which the apical part of the phragmocone is received. The removed portion has the cast of the alveolus attached to it.
Fig. 16, of which fig. 17, is an enlarged view, is a species of chambered foraminiferous shell, called _Nodosaria_ (_N. raphanistrum_, of Lamarck); from Sienna. See description of Plate LXII.
PLATE LX.
Ammonites.
Fig. 1. A Belemnite (_Belemnitella mucronata_) attached to a flint. Kent.
Fig. 2. Cast of part of a straight-chambered shell (_Baculites Fraujasii_, of Lamarck), in which the septa, or partitions, are deeply and regularly sinuated. In fossils of this kind, the cast of each chamber is distinct from the others; but the series is held together by the flexuosities of the septa. From Maestricht.
Fig. 3. A limestone cast of the chamber of an Ammonite: from Bath. The elongated channel in the middle indicates the position of the siphuncle.
Fig. 4. Fragment of an Ammonite, showing cavities of two chambers, and the canal of the siphuncle, partly lined with calcareous spar.
Fig. 5. Polished sections of an Ammonite (_Ammonites Walcotii_) from the Lias, Whitby. The chambers are filled with semi-transparent spar. The siphunculus is seen running along the dorsal, or outer margins of the volutions. The dark appearances observable in several parts of the siphuncle result from the carbonization of the animal membrane with which the tube was lined in the living state.
Fig. 6. "An _Oval Ammonite_."--_Mr. Parkinson._ This is evidently the cast of a discoidal shell pressed into an elliptical form. In the Chalk-marl, casts of Ammonites, Nautilites, &c. are very commonly more or less distorted by compression. The marl appears to have remained in a plastic state after the decomposition of the shell in which it was moulded, and to have admitted of being squeezed into close contact with the surrounding matrix; when the stratum became consolidated the cast retained its accidental shape, and adhering but slightly to the investing marl, was separable by a properly directed blow. This explains the otherwise unintelligible fact of a cast being closely invested by the rock, and all traces of the shell in which it was formed absent. When both the cast and the matrix became solid and uncompressible before the shell was decomposed, then loose casts were formed; as is common in the Portland stone, &c. The fossil figured appears to be an indifferent example of a common chalk-marl species (_Ammonites Mantelli_, of Sowerby).
Fig. 7. A beautiful cast of an Ammonite, in which the foliaceous septa transmuted into pyrites (sulphuret of iron, or _marcasite_), are exquisitely shown.
Fig. 8. A very fine specimen of an Ammonite (_Ammonites latus_, of Sowerby), from the "_Galt_;" a subdivision of the Lower chalk, in which Ammonites, with their pearly shells beautifully preserved, are abundant. From Folkstone, in Kent; a celebrated locality for these and other fossils of the same cretaceous deposits.
Fig. 9. Sections of a pyritous cast of an Ammonite, showing the sinuous edges of the septa.
PLATE LXI.
Fossil Cephalopoda, &c.
Fig. 1. Part of the cast of a species of Hamite (_Hamites intermedius_, of Sowerby), from the Gait of Folkstone. The name _Hamites_ was employed by Mr. Parkinson to designate a genus of chambered shells, in which the direction of the spire, instead of being straight, as in _Baculites_, or discoidal, as in _Ammonites_, was bent like a hook beyond the inner reflected part. All the specimens here figured are but fragments.[55]
[Footnote 55: Medals of Creation, vol. ii. p. 500.]
Figs. 2, & 5. Portions of _Hamites intermedius_, of Sowerby.
Fig. 3. _Hamites plicatilis_, of Sowerby.
Fig. 4. A fragment of _Hamites rotundus_, of Sowerby.
Figs. 6, & 7. Two views of a species of an extinct genus, the shells of which, though not chambered, are supposed to have been inhabited by Cephalopoda, like the recent Argonaut. The specimen (_Bellerophon costatus_, of Sowerby) is from the Mountain limestone of Derbyshire.[56]
[Footnote 56: Ibid p. 477.]
Figs. 8, & 9. An Ammonite with a contracted aperture, and three deep constrictions across the disk. From the Inferior oolite of Normandy.
Figs. 10, & 11. Two specimens of "_Scaphites_, or Boat-like Ammonite," of Mr. Parkinson. A remarkable cretaceous genus of extinct cephalopoda. The specimens figured are from the Lower chalk of Sussex (_Scaphites costatus_, of Mantell; _S. equalis_, of Sowerby).
Fig. 12. Cast of a spiral chambered shell, called _Turrilite_, of which many species occur in the lower cretaceous strata (_Turrilites costatus_, of Langius). The quarries of lower chalk at St. Catharine's Mount, near Rouen, in Normandy, have long been celebrated for the number and perfection of specimens of this elegant type of cephalopodous shells. The first known English examples of this genus, as well as of Scaphites, were discovered by me in the chalk marl, at Hamsey, near Lewes, in Sussex, in 1810. Several very fine specimens of a large species (_Turrilites tuberculatus_), some of which are more than two feet in length, have been obtained from the same strata. The tubercles on the casts of this species are the bases of strong spines. The siphunculus, in the state of a pyritous cast, is preserved in some examples.
Figs. 13 to 27. These figures all refer to a very curious group of fossils, termed _Nummulites_, from the supposed resemblance of some of the flat disks to a piece of money. The complexity of their internal structure, and the supposed resemblance of their organization to that of the true Cephalopoda, led to many erroneous opinions as to the nature of the originals. That eminent physiologist, Dr. W. B. Carpenter, has recently investigated the intimate structure of the whole group, and the results are given in a beautiful and masterly memoir in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London.[57] Dr. Carpenter has clearly shown that these fossils belong to the _Foraminifera_, and not, as some eminent naturalists have supposed, to the _Bryozoa_, or "_Moss-corals_." As the family to which they belong comprises a numerous assemblage of minute organic remains, many of which are delineated in the next plate (Plate LXII.), the reader is referred to the "_Supplementary Notes_," for a general description of the _Foraminifera_, in which is given a restored figure of the supposed living animal of the Nummulite, from Dr. Carpenter's memoir.
[Footnote 57: No. 21, for February 1850. "On the Microscopic Structure of Nummulina, Orbitolites and Orbitoides."]
Fig. 13. The usual appearance of the common species of Nummulite (_Nummulina lævigata_). From Egypt.
Fig. 14. A specimen rubbed down, and exposing the internal cellular structure.
Fig. 15. An example in which the outer investment is partly removed.
Fig. 16. A vertical section of the same.
Fig. 17. This fossil, of which fig. 18, is a vertical section (_Nummulites obtusa_, of Sowerby), appears to belong to a different genus; probably _Orbitolites_, or _Marginopora_. Tertiary strata.
Fig. 19. A vertical section of a Nummulite, showing a cavity in the centre, probably from decomposition.
Fig. 20. A section of another species of Nummulite (_N. dispansa ?_ of Sowerby);[58] Tertiary strata, India.
[Footnote 58: See Sowerby's Mineral Conchology, vol. i.; and Mantell's Fossils of the South Downs.]
Figs. 21 to 26, are various sections of a fossil Nummulite, of which fig. 37, represents the flat surface (_Nummulites complanata_, of Parkinson. This fossil belongs to the genus _Discospira_ of Mr. Morris).[59]
[Footnote 59: "_Discospira_, Nov. Gen. Disciform, volutions distrial, not embracing the previous ones, cells numerous." _Mr. Morris_, 1850.]
Fig. 28. A species of Foraminifera (_Fasciolites_, of Parkinson; _Alveolina elliptica_, of D'Orbigny).
Fig. 29. A transverse section.
Figs. 30, & 31. Enlarged views of the same fossil. Fig. 31. A longitudinal section.
PLATE LXII.
Fossil Foraminifera.
With the exception of figs. 23, 24, 29, 31 and 32, all the specimens delineated in this Plate belong to the Foraminifera. The figures represent magnified views; the natural size is indicated in some instances by a minute outline. Under the article "Foraminifera," in the "_Supplementary Notes_," a general account is given of the structure and economy of the living animalcules. A list of names is subjoined.
Figs. 1, & 2. _Rotalia trochiliformis_, of Lamarck. Tertiary.
Fig. 3. _Rotalia Beccarii_, of Linnæus. Tertiary.
Fig. 4. _Cristellaria rotulata_, Lamarck. Chalk.
Figs. 5, 6, 7. _Lituola nautiloidea_, Lamarck. Chalk.
Fig. 8. _Spirolina depressa_, Lamarck. This and the specimens to fig. 21 inclusive, are tertiary fossils.
Fig. 9. _Spirolina cylindracea_, Lamarck.
Fig. 10. _Orthocerina clavulus._
Fig. 11. _Biloculina ringens_, Lamarck.
Figs. 12, & 13. _Quinqueloculina cor anguinum_, Lamarck.
Figs. 14, 15, & 16. _Quinqueloculina._
Figs. 17, 18, 19. _Triloculina trigonula_, Lamarck.
Fig. 20. _Quinqueloculina opposita_, Lamarck.
Fig. 21. _Peneroloplis opercularis_.
Fig. 22. _Adelosina_, of D'Orbigny; a recent species.
Figs. 23, & 24. _Gyrogonites_. The fossils here figured on a magnified scale as microscopic shells of the same family as those above described, received the name of Gyrogonites, or twisted stones. They prove to be the seed-vessels of a species of the common fresh-water plant, the _Chara_. The fruit of this genus consists of minute nuclei, with an external calcareous covering, composed of five spirally twisted plates, which unite at the summit. These fossils occur by myriads in many of the fresh-water secondary and tertiary limestones, as well as in the calcareous deposits now in progress of formation in our lakes. In the lacustrine limestones of the Isle of Wight (at Binstead, White Cliff, &c.), beautiful specimens may be obtained.[60] Professor E. Forbes has discovered Gyrogonites in the Wealden strata of the Isle of Purbeck, associated with shells of the genera _Planorbis_, _Physa_, _Paluolina_, &c.
[Footnote 60: See Geological Excursions round the Isle of Wight. 2d Edit. 1850, p. 108.]
Fig. 25. _Polystomella crispa_, of Linnæus. From the tertiary strata of the Apennines.
Fig. 26. _Cristellaria ?_
Figs. 27, & 28. _Rotalia Beccarii_. Apennines.
Fig. 30. _Cristellaria galea_, of Lamarck. Apennines.
Fig. 29. Cast of a species of Area; a bivalve shell, from tertiary strata, Bordeaux.
Fig. 31. A curious pteropodous shell (_Vaginella depressa_), from tertiary strata, Basterot.
Fig. 32. This appears to be an imperfect specimen of a bivalve having a fibrous structure, like _Pinna_. It is probably a fragment of an Inoceramus.
PLATE LXIII.
Trigoniæ.
Figs. 1, & 2, represent the structure of the hinge in both valves of a genus of bivalves of which numerous fossil species are met with in the secondary strata, and two or three species still exist in the Pacific Ocean. The genus is named _Trigonia_, from the form of the hinge, and the specific names below are those given by Mr. Parkinson.
Fig. 3. _Trigonia clavellata_, of Parkinson, from the Kimmeridge clay, Hartwell, Bucks.
Fig. 4. _Trigonia costata_, Oxford clay, Wilts.
Fig. 5. _Trigonia excentrica_; upper greensand, Blackdown. Like most of the shells from this locality, the Trigoniæ are transmuted into silex.
Fig. 6. _Trigonia dædalea_, Blackdown.
Fig. 7. ---- _spinosa_, Blackdown.
Fig. 8. Enlarged view of the spines of the above.
Fig. 9. _Trigonia alæformis_, Blackdown.
Fig. 10. ---- _rudis_, Blackdown.
Fig. 11. A bivalve shell of the genus _Productus_ (_P. antiquatus_, of Sowerby?), from the Mountain limestone. See description of fig. 9, Plate LXVII.
Fig. 12. Cast of a species of _Trigonia_ (_T. clavellata_), from the Portland rock. Many beds of this oolitic limestone are almost entirely made up of casts of Trigoniæ, and chiefly of this species.
Fig. 13. _Trigonia sinuata_, from Blackdown.
Figs. 14 to 18. "Different views of a species of _Harpax_."--_Mr. Parkinson._ (_Plicatula spinosa_). From the Lias, Gloucestershire.
Fig. 14. The inner surface of the flat valve.
Fig. 15. Inner surface of the convex valve.
Fig. 16. Magnified hinge teeth of the flat, and fig. 17, of the convex valve.
Fig. 18. Magnified view of the adpressed spines on the external surface of the shell.
PLATE LXIV.
Fossil Shells.
Fig. 1. A perfect specimen of one valve, showing the character of the hinge of _Cucullæa decussata_, of Parkinson. London clay. Herne Bay.
Fig. 2. Interior view of _Crassatella tumida_, of Lamarck. Eocene strata, Paris.
Fig. 3. _Cardium Hillanum_, of Sowerby. A beautiful silicified bivalve from Blackdown.
Fig. 4. _Nucula ovum_, of Sowerby. A common bivalve, in the Lias, Yorkshire.
Fig. 5. Inner view of _Cyrena deperdita_, of Parkinson. Plastic clay, Woolwich.
Fig. 6. _Lima gigantea_, of Sowerby, from Lyme Regis. This is a young and small specimen of a large bivalve that occurs in great perfection in the Lias.
Fig. 7. _Cardinia Listeri_, of Sowerby. From the Lias, Gloucestershire.
Fig. 8. Cast of a bivalve; genus uncertain.
Figs. 9 to 12. These fossils are the _Trigonellites_ of Mr. Parkinson; and have since been referred to a genus named _Aptychus_. Their true relations are very problematical. Though found in pairs, there is no hinge or natural connexion. Some naturalists suppose they may belong to the internal organization of Ammonites, because certain kinds have been found collocated with particular species of that genus of Cepholopoda. At present I do not think there is any satisfactory evidence as to their real nature. Species occur in the Kimmeridge clay, and other subdivisions of the Oolite formation.
Figs. 9, & 12. _Trigonellites lata_, of Mr. Parkinson.
Figs. 10, & 11. ---- _lamellosa_.
Figs. 13, & 14. _Corbida revoluta_, of Sowerby. London clay, Highgate.
Fig. 16. An imperfect specimen of _Lysianassa_ (_Mya_) _literata_, from the fullers' earth of the Oolite, Wiltshire.
Figs. 15, & 17. _Cardita senilis_, of Sowerby. From the Red crag of Suffolk.
PLATE LXV.
Fossil Shells.
Fig. 1. A single valve, viewed interiorly, of a fine shell (_Panopæa Aldrovandi_, of Faujas St. Fond) from the Pleistocene or Newer Tertiary strata, that form a chain of low hills near Palermo, in Sicily. The shells in these deposits comprise almost all the genera and species that now inhabit the Mediterranean. They occur in the most beautiful state, deprived only of their colour; and groups are often met with of extreme elegance. The cabinet of the Marquess of Northampton contains an extensive and unrivalled series of these fossils, collected during his Lordship's residence at Palermo.
Figs. 2, & 4. A boring bivalve (_Fistulana_ or _Lithodomus_) from the Oolite, Bath.
Figs. 3, & 5. Valves of a small Oyster from the Crag of Essex.
Fig. 6. A group of Lithodomi in limestone from the Oolite, Bradford, Wilts.
Fig. 7. A detached specimen from the same, showing the enclosed bivalve.
Figs. 8, & 10. Fine but imperfect specimens of a species of _Teredo_ (_Teredina personata_, of Lamarck), from the Plastic clay of Epernay, France.
Fig. 9. A snail-shell (_Helix arbustorum_) found associated, and evidently contemporaneous, with bones of Mammoth, and extinct species of Deer, and other mammalia. From Brentford, in a bed of light calcareous earth, twenty feet below the surface.
Fig. 11. "A concamerated Teredo."--_Mr. Parkinson._ I am unable to ascertain the nature of this fossil.
Fig. 12. A species of _Fistulana_, from France.
Fig. 13. External surface of _Chama squamosa_ of Brander. London clay, Hordwell.
Figs. 14, & 15, are the anchylosed caudal vertebræ of the tails of fishes. From the London clay, Isle of Sheppey.
Fig. 16. "A small oyster with a spathose structure."--_Mr. Parkinson._ This shell is probably the flat valve of a species of _Dianchora_, of Sowerby; from the Chalk.
PLATE LXVI.
Fossil Bivalve Shells.
Fig. 1. A fossil Oyster (_Ostrea Marshii_, of Sowerby), from the Cornbrash of the Oolite, Wiltshire.
Fig. 2. The fossil Cockscomb Oyster, (_Ostrea carinata_, of Lamarck,) from the Lower chalk, Havre, France.
Fig. 3. The elegant fossil shell here figured is a peculiar and most abundant species in the Lias formation; specimens are not uncommon, in which every part of the shell is as perfect as if just thrown up on the sea-shore. It belongs to the genus Gryphites (_Gryphea incurva_, of Sowerby,) the shells of which are nearly related to the oysters, but are distinguished by the deep concave under-valve, and its curved beak, and the almost flat upper shell. The testaceous substance is of a finer laminated structure than in the Ostrea, and the hinge-ligament is inserted in an elongated curved groove.[61]
[Footnote 61: Medals of Creation, vol. i. p. 387.]
Fig. 4. "_Ostrea vel frons folium._"--_Mr. Parkinson._ This species appears to be the _Ostrea gregarea_ (?) of Sowerby, which occurs in the chlorite marl or firestone of the Lower chalk in Sussex and Kent.
Fig. 5. The fossil is the cast of an oyster-like bivalve, called Perna, (_Perna quadrata_, of Sowerby,) which is easily recognisable, even in casts, by the line of distinct teeth which compose the hinge. This species is abundant in the Portland limestone, particularly in the quarries around Swindon, in Wiltshire; but from the close adhesion of the outer surface of the shell to the surrounding stone, they can seldom be extracted, the casts only being readily obtainable. In the Kimmeridge clay, which lies above the Portland rock, the shells may be met with in great perfection. The best locality is near Hartwell, in Buckinghamshire, where the clay is extensively dug for the brick manufactures.
Figs. 6, & 7. Two views of a small shell of the genus _Crenatula_, from Bedfordshire.
Fig. 8. Portion of a very large species of Perna (_Perna maxillata_, of Sowerby), from tertiary strata. Piedmont. The figure shows the inner surface of the shell with part of the broad crenulated hinge.
PLATE LXVII.
Fossil Shells of Brachiopoda, &c.
Fig. 1. A species of _Radiolites_ (_R. agariciformis_, of M. D'Orbigny), from the Cretaceous strata of France. This genus is only known in a fossil state; it belongs to the same group of shells (order, _Rudistes_) as the Spherulites and Hippurites: the lower valve is conical, and much larger than the upper, which is slightly convex; it is deeply channelled longitudinally.
Fig. 2. Smooth valve of a species of Corbula (_Corbula gallica_, of Lamarck); abundant in some of the Eocene deposits of the Paris basin.
Fig. 3. A single valve; the inner surface is shown in the figure, of a remarkable genus of shells (_Crania personata_, of Lamarck), frequently occurring attached to Echinites and other bodies of the white chalk.
Fig. 4. A species of _Terebratula_ (_T. diphya_, of Lamarck). The shells of this genus belong to that division of mollusks termed _Brachiopoda_ (arm-feet), from their having internally two spiral fleshy arms developed from the sides of the alimentary orifice. These organs are supported by shelly processes, curiously modified in different genera, which often occur in a fossil state. Although the fossil Terebratulæ are very numerous, the recent species are but few, and are inhabitants of the seas off Australia. They form two natural groups; in the one the shells are smooth, but perforated all over with minute openings or foramina; and these are often filled with a dark substance, which is the carbonized soft parts: in the other division the shells are plicated or furrowed, and are not foraminiferous.[62] The Spirifers, another group of Brachiopoda, have a pair of internal spiral appendages.
[Footnote 62: On the structure of shells the reader should consult the admirable papers of Dr. Carpenter, in the British Association Reports.]
Fig. 5. _Terebratula coarctata_, of Parkinson. Bradford clay, Wilts.
Figs. 6, & 7, show the internal structure of recent Terebratulæ from New Holland. The complicated shelly apophyses which supported the arms are quite perfect.
Fig. 8. _Terebratula triquetra_, of Parkinson (_T. diphya_, of Lamarck); another example of the species, fig. 4.
Figs. 9, & 10. Different parts of the same specimen of a brachiopodous bivalve belonging to the genus _Productus_, so named from the lengthened or produced form of the convex valve. "This is generally filled with limestone, which conceals the internal structure; but, with a slight blow, the shell divides, when the edge of the small valve rests against the inside of the produced cylindrical part of the larger one; generally about half an inch from the top of the shell: one side of the valve, before hidden, fig. 9 _a_, is then exposed, as shown in fig. 10."--_Mr. Parkinson._
Fig. 9. _a_, the beak of the upper valve; _c_, a cavity in the superior part of the shell.
Fig. 10. The under part of the shell; _b_, a depression receiving the beak of the upper valve, a.
Fig. 10*. The inner surface of another upper valve, having a longitudinal fissure. The species figured is the _Productus Martini_ of Mr. Sowerby. From the mountain limestone of Derbyshire; in which deposit numerous examples occur.
Fig. 11. A large species of Spirifer (_Spirifer striatus_, of Sowerby), from the mountain limestone of Derbyshire. In this species the upper valve is broken away, and one of the large spiral apophyses is seen lying imbedded in the limestone with which the cavity of the shell is filled.
Fig. 13, is a beautiful example of part of one of the spiral appendages of the same species.
Fig. 12. "A patch of square scales of a fish from Dorsetshire."--_Mr. Parkinson._ These evidently belong to a Lepidoid fish (_Dapedius_), whose remains are common in the Lias;[63] perfect specimens are often obtained. The British Museum contains some beautiful examples of this fossil fish.
[Footnote 63: Wonders of Geology, vol. ii. p. 529.]
Figs. 14, & 15. A curious fossil bivalve, from the Devonian strata of the Eifel. The flat valve is shown in fig. 14; and the deep conical valve in fig. 15; _a_, tooth in the posterior margin; _b_, a part of the surface magnified, to show its cellular structure. The species is _Calceola sandalina_, of Lamarck.
Fig. 16. A species of Spirifer; _a_, medial convexity of the upper valve; _b_, the triangular foramen at the beak.
Fig. 17. Spirifer (_S. cuspidatus_, of Mr. Martin), from the Mountain limestone of Derbyshire.
Fig. 18, represents a common appearance in certain chalk flints. Although I have examined hundreds, and some in which the form was more definite than in the specimen figured, I am not able to offer any probable suggestion as to their origin, should they be organic bodies, of which there is much doubt.
Fig. 19. "_Coronulites diadema._"--_Mr. Parkinson._ Probably a species of Balanus, from a tertiary deposit.
Fig. 20. Cast of one of the shells of a bivalve (_Pentamerus_), from the Wenlock limestone of Dudley.
PLATE LXVIII.
Fossil Crustacea.
Figs. 1, & 3. "Fossil Crabs, from Sheppey."--_Mr. Parkinson._ The London clay of this celebrated locality contains an abundance of the fossil remains of Crustacea; and the visitor may purchase of the local collectors fossil crabs and lobsters, as readily as the recent species from the neighbouring sea. Good specimens are however rare, and command high prices. The specimens figured are two common species.
Fig. 1. _Cancer Leachii_, of MM. Desmarest and Brongniart.
Fig. 3. _Inachus Lamarckii._
These fossils show the usual mode in which the crustaceæ occur in the hardened clay of Sheppey. The thorax is bent over the abdomen, and the pair of large chelate claws drawn towards each other.
Fig. 2. Fossil Insects from the lithographic stone of Pappenheim. "_a_, an insect with a bifurcated caudal extremity; _b_, the sting which has passed out of its sheath; c, the termination in a single point."--_Mr. Parkinson._
Fig. 4. "A fossil Shrimp, from Anspach."--_Mr. Parkinson._
Fig. 5. "Impression of an unknown fossil."--_Mr. Parkinson._
Fig. 6. "The claw of a Crab, from Maestricht, &c."--_Mr. Parkinson._ Claws of this kind are frequent in the soft sandy limestone of St. Peter's Mountain, but no other vestiges of the Crabs to which they belonged have been met with. The cause of this has been ascertained: the claws belong to a species of Hermit Crab (_Pagurus Faujasii_, of Desmarest), which like the living species had the body covered by a delicate membrane, the claws only possessing a durable crustaceous shell.[64]
[Footnote 64: Wonders of Geology, p. 338.]
Fig. 7. "An extended trilobite, from Dudley."--_Mr. Parkinson._ Among the organic remains of the inhabitants of the seas, in whose abysses were formed the Silurian, Devonian, and other ancient sedimentary strata, an extinct family of crustaceans, comprising numerous genera, are among the most characteristic and remarkable. The name "_Trilobite_," first given by Mr. Parkinson, expresses the most obvious character of the longitudinally trilobed, convex, segmented, carapace of the body, of the most common forms; but so great is the number of species, and so dissimilar the groups, now known, that the nomenclature of this class of fossils is greatly extended. In Sir R. I. Murchison's splendid work on the Silurian System, the genera and species of the formations therein comprised are beautifully illustrated. The specimen figured is an expanded specimen of the species commonly known as the _Dudley Locust_ or _Insect_, (_Calymene Blumenbachii_), from the Wenlock limestone, Dudley.
Fig. 8. A coiled-up specimen; in this view are seen both ends of the crustaceous covering of the animal: _a_, "the eye enlarged."
Fig. 9, is part of the head of the same species.
Fig. 10. "A fossil Crab from the East Indies."--_Mr. Parkinson._ Beautiful specimens of this species of Crab (_Gonoplax Latreilli_, of Mr. Edwards) have been obtained from the tertiary strata of India.
Fig. 11. Another form of Trilobite (_Ogygia Buchii_, (_Asaphus_,) of the Silurian System), from the Llandeilo flagstones.
Fig. 12. "Remains of some large unknown insect."--_Mr. Parkinson._ This figure is not sufficiently defined to admit of interpretation.
Fig. 13., "Part of a trilobite with tuberculated head," (_Calymene variolare_,) from the Wenlock limestone, of Dudley.
Fig. 14. Posterior part of a trilobite with a caudal style or process, (_Asaphus caudatus_,) from the Wenlock shale, Dudley.
Fig. 15. A nodule of ironstone from Coalbrook Dale, in which is imbedded a small crustacean allied to the recent King Crab or _Limulus_; a genus abundant in the seas of India and America.[65] (_Limulus trilobitoides_, of Dr. Buckland. _Bellinurus bellulus_, of Mr. König.)
[Footnote 65: Medals of Creation, vol. i. p. 550.]
PLATE LXIX.
Fossil Fishes and Reptiles.
Fig. 1. "A fossil body resembling part of a Tortoise, from Gloucestershire."--_Mr. Parkinson._ This specimen is probably one of the mandibles of a remarkable extinct genus (_Ceratodus_) of fishes, whose dental organs, like those of the recent _Chimæra_, consisted of consolidated plates instead of separate teeth; each side of the jaw was formed by one of these mandibular processes; the upper margin is deeply undulated. The bone-bed of the Lias at Aust Cliff near Westbury, Somersetshire, is rich in these remains.
Fig. 2. The plastron, or inferior aspect of the carapace of a fossil Turtle (_Chelonia breviceps_), from the London Clay of the Isle of Sheppey. _a_, fragment of the _entosternal_ plate; _b, b_, _hyosternal_ plates; _c, c_, _hyposternals_; _d_, _xiphisternals_.[66]
[Footnote 66: See Parkinson, p. 269.]
Fig. 3. The cranium of the same species of Turtle, from the Isle of Sheppey. Equally rich in the remains of Chelonian reptiles, as in those of Fishes, Crustaceans, Serpents, and Mollusks, the little Island at the mouth of the Medway has yielded to the indefatigable researches of Mr. Bowerbank the most extensive series of fossil Turtles hitherto discovered in England. The various genera and species will be figured and described in a work now in progress by Professors Bell and Owen, under the auspices of the Palæontographical Society.
Fig. 4. A Serpula (_S. antiquata ?_), from the chalk, Sussex.
Fig. 5. A dorsal vertebra of a fossil crocodilian reptile (_Steneosaurus_), from the Oxford Clay of Honfleur. _a, b_, costal depressions.
Fig. 6. A dorsal convexo-concave vertebra of a crocodilian or gavial-like reptile (_Streptospondylus_), from the same locality. This figure shows the remarkable character whence the name of this genus: the convexity of the body of the vertebra (_a_) being situated anteriorly as in mammalia, the reverse of the position of the bones forming the vertebral column in the existing Crocodilians and Lacertians. _b_, the posterior concavity; _c_, a deep depression beneath the neural arch.
Fig. 7. Sketch of the lower jaw of an extinct gavial-like reptile (_Steneosaurus_): the vertebra, fig. 5, probably belongs to the same species. From Honfleur. This figure, and figs, 5, 6, and 8, are copied from Cuvier, "_Annales du Muséum_"
Fig. 8. A caudal vertebra of the Fossil Animal of Maestricht (_Mosasaurus_); a, the chevron bone or inferior spinous process (_hœmapophysis_), anchylosed to the middle of the body of the vertebra.
Fig. 9. Fossil scale of a ganoid fish (probably _Lepidotus_), from Kent.
Fig. 10. Fossil tooth of a fish of the Shark family (_Notidanus microdon_, of Agassiz,) from the chalk of Kent.
Fig. 11. Recent "tooth of one of the Dog-fish," (Mr. Parkinson,) for comparison with fig. 10.
Fig. 12. Tooth of an extinct group of squaloid fishes (_Ptychodus decurrens_, of Agassiz,) from the chalk of Kent.[67]
[Footnote 67: See Medals of Creation, vol. ii. p. 617.]
Fig. 13. A ctenoid (or comb-like) scale of a fish, (probably of a species of _Beryx_,) from the chalk of Kent.
PLATE LXX.
Fossil Reptiles and Fishes.
Fig. 1. A reduced figure of the celebrated specimen of the jaws, &c. of the "Fossil Animal of Maestricht," (_Mosasaurus Hoffmani_,) from the cretaceous strata of St. Peter's Mountain. See "_Supplementary Notes_," art. _Mosasaurus_.
"_a, b._ The left side of the lower jaw, nearly whole, and seen on its outer side.
_c, d._ Right side of the lower jaw, viewed on the inner side, the posterior part of which, a little concealed by the palate bones, is continued to _e_.
_f, g._ The right side of the upper jaw, seen on its inner side, and with the palate bone. This part is nearly in its natural position in relation to the corresponding ramus of the lower jaw.
_h, i._ A fragment of the left side of the upper jaw, displaced and fallen across the lower jaw.
_k, l, m; k', l', m', o'._ The two palate bones displaced and thrown one over the other, and also over the right side of the lower jaw. In the original specimen a portion of bone is placed from _m_ to _p_, and another at _q_, which are omitted to render the figure more intelligible."--_Mr. Parkinson._
Figs. 2 to 18, are fossil teeth of various kinds of fishes, principally of the Shark and Ray families.
Fig. 2. Tooth of a shark (_Lamna_), from Malta.
Fig. 3. Tooth of a shark (_Galeus pristodontus_), chalk marl, Kent.
Fig. 4. Tooth of a Saurian, the upper and lower end imperfect: probably of a species of Steneosaurus, from Bath.
Figs. 5, & 8. Teeth of a shark (_Otodus_,) London Clay, Isle of Sheppey.
Fig. 6. Tooth of a fish, (_Spherodus_,) from the Oolite, Gloucestershire.
Fig. 7. Part of the fossil jaw with three rows of teeth of a fish, (of the Pycnoid[68] family,) from the Oolite, Gloucestershire.
[Footnote 68: Medals of Creation, vol. ii. p. 641.]
Fig. 9. Tooth of a species of _Lamna_, from Sheppey.
Fig. 10. Tooth of a species of _Hybodus_,[69] Stonesfield.
[Footnote 69: Ibid. p. 621.]
Fig. 11. A very large tooth of a Shark, (_Carcharias megalodon_,) from the tertiary deposits of Malta.
Fig. 12. Fragment of a bone, with two teeth, probably of a species of _Pycnodus_.
Fig. 13. "The mandible and tooth of a recent fish (_Diodon_), to compare with the fossils figs. 16, and 17."--_Mr. Parkinson._
Fig. 14. "Fossil palate of a fish, from Sheppey."--_Mr. Parkinson._ This evidently belonged to a species of _Ray_; possibly to the Eagle rays (_Miliobatis_).
Fig. 15. Tooth of a fish allied to the _Cestracionts_, or Port Jackson Shark, (probably of the genus _Acrodus_,[70]) from Bath; commonly called "_Leech palates_" by the quarry-men.
[Footnote 70: Medals of Creation, p. 614.]
Figs. 16, & 17. "Fossil palates of fishes of the Ray kind, from Sheppey."--_Mr. Parkinson._ These appear to belong to the Miliobates (_M. micropleuris_, of Agassiz). Beautiful examples of these fossils have been obtained from the Bracklesham clay, on the coast of the West of Sussex. The late Frederic Dixon, Esq. of Worthing, whose untimely death is so much to be deplored, had a matchless suite of specimens from that locality.
Fig. 18. A fine specimen of a fossil tooth of a fish of an extinct genus, of which many species occur in the chalk (_Ptychodus polygurus_, of Agassiz). The teeth of various species of this genus of Sharks abound in the chalk of almost every part of England.[71]
[Footnote 71: Ibid. p. 616; and plate vi. fig. 2.]
PLATE LXXI.
Fossil Remains of Mammalia.
Fig. 1. "a fossil tooth, probably of some animal of the whale kind."--_Mr. Parkinson._ I am not able to determine the nature of this specimen.
Fig. 2. The antlers and skull of the Fossil Elk, of Ireland, (_Megaceros Hibernicus_.) The original was nearly eleven feet across, from the point of one antler to another. A perfect skeleton of this extinct gigantic deer is exhibited in the Gallery of Organic Remains in the British Museum. For an account of this animal see Wonders of Geology, vol. i. p. 132; and _Supplementary Notes_, p. 189. The following measurements of the specimen figured are given by Mr. Parkinson;
Feet. Inches. _a_ to _b_ 10 10 _c_ to _d_ 5 2 _e_ to _f_ 3 7½ _g_ to _h_ 2 6 _i_ to _k_ 1 10½ _d_ to _l_ 1 2 Diameter of the horn at _m_ 0 2¼ Circumference, " 0 8 " at the root 2 11 Length of the cranium from _n_ to _o_ 2 0 Width " " _p_ to _q_ 1 0
"A similar pair, found ten feet under ground in the county of Clare, was presented to Charles the Second, and placed in the guard-room of Hampton Court Palace."
Fig. 3. Fragment of the fossil horn of some species of Cervus or Deer, from Etampes, in France.
Fig. 4. Two teeth of a ruminant, (a species of _Bos_ or _Ox_,) in breccia, from Gibraltar.[72]
[Footnote 72: Wonders of Geology, vol. i. p. 186.]
The remaining figures. Figs. 5, 6, 7, 8, represent the worn surfaces of molars or grinding teeth of the extinct species of Elephants termed Mammoths, (_Elephas primigenius_, of M. Bojanus.)
Fig. 9, shows the structure of part of the tooth.
These were regarded by Mr. Parkinson as referable to two or more species of Mammoth; but Professor Owen, after an examination of the vast number of specimens that modern researches have brought to light, and which are deposited in the public and private collections of Great Britain, concludes that the specimens here figured belong to but one species. The differences observable in the surface of the crowns, are due to abrasion, and to the latitude of variety to which the highly complex molars of this extinct Elephant were subject.[73]
[Footnote 73: British Association, Report for 1843. Fossil Mammalia, p. 213.]
For an account of the Mastodon and Mammoth, see Wonders of Geology, vol. i. pp. 151-161.
PLATE LXXII.
Fossil Teeth of Mammalia.
Fig. 1. A right lower molar tooth of an extinct species of Hippopotamus (_H. major_, of Cuvier), from France.
Fig. 2. Upper molar of an extinct species of Rhinoceros (_R. leptorhinus_, of Cuvier), from the bone-cave near Torquay, Devonshire.
Fig. 3. The crown of a molar tooth of the "gigantic Tapir" of Baron Cuvier; the _Dinotherium_ of M. Kaup.[74]
[Footnote 74: Wonders of Geology, vol. i. p. 174.]
Fig. 4, "the outer, and fig. 5, the inner, surface of the fourth molar of _Palæotherium medium_, of M. Cuvier."--_Mr. Parkinson._ From the eocene tertiary deposits of Paris.
Fig. 6, the outer, and fig. 7, the inner, aspect of an upper molar of the same animal.
Figs. 8, & 9. Lower molars of _Amplotherium commune_, of M. Cuvier.[75]
[Footnote 75: Ibid, p, 256.]
Fig. 10. An ungueal or bone of the claw, of a gigantic animal of the Sloth tribe (_Megalonyx Jeffersoni_); the figure is half the linear diameter of the original.[76]
[Footnote 76: Ibid. p. 169.]
Fig. 11. Vertical section of a tooth of the same. These remains of a colossal animal of that remarkable group of mammalia--the Edentata--are from Big-bone Cave, in Kentucky. The Megalonyx resembled the Megatherium in its general characters but was one-third smaller. See _Supplementary Notes_, p. 184.
PLATE LXXIII.
Megatherium and Fossil Bears.
Fig. 1, is a sketch, on a very small scale, of the skeleton of a colossal extinct animal of the Sloth tribe, discovered in the alluvial deposits of the Pampas, and preserved in the museum at Madrid. A plaster model of a skeleton, restored from the remains of various individuals, dispersed in different collections, is just completed, and exhibited to the public in the Gallery of Organic Remains of the British Museum.[77] This extinct animal is named the _Megatherium_ (_gigantic wild animal_) _Cuvieri_. It was seven feet high, and nine long, and therefore larger than the largest rhinoceros. It possessed no incisor teeth; and the grinders, which are seven inches long, are of a prismatic form, and like those of the sloths, are composed of dentine and cement. They are so formed that the crown always presents two cutting, wedge-shaped, salient angles; they are therefore admirably adapted for cutting and bruising vegetable substances. The entire fore-foot is about a yard in length, and armed with strong claws. The Megatherium held an intermediate place between the sloths, armadillos, and ant-eaters. The celebrated specimens of different parts of the skeleton of this colossal creature, preserved in the Hunterian Museum of the College of Surgeons of England, were collected and presented by Sir Woodbine Parish.
[Footnote 77: See Wonders of Geology, pp. 164-167.]
Fig. 2. The hindmost grinder of the upper jaw of the Fossil Bear (_Ursus spelæus_) of the Caverns, from Gaylenreuth.[78]
[Footnote 78: Ibid. vol. i. p. 176.]
Fig. 3. The middle upper grinder.
Fig. 4. The foremost upper grinder.
Fig. 5. The hindmost grinder of the lower jaw.
Fig. 6. The penultimate grinder of the lower jaw.
Fig. 7. The antepenultimate lower grinder.
Fig. 8. The foremost lower grinder.
Fig. 9. The canine tooth of the Fossil Bear.
PLATE LXXIV.
Tooth of the Mastodon.
A molar tooth of the _Mastodon giganteus_, from Big-bone Lick, Kentucky; of the natural size.
From the great number of bones and teeth of animals of the extinct elephantine genus, to which the name of Mastodon was given by Cuvier (from the structure of the crowns of the teeth), that have of late years been brought to England, and are dispersed in our public and private collections, the intelligent reader must be familiar with the forms, characters, and gigantic proportions, of that stupendous tribe of animals which once ranged through the primeval forests not only of America, but also of some parts of Europe. From a perfect skeleton lately set up in the British Museum (in the same room with that of the Megatherium), a correct idea may be obtained of this peculiar type of mammalian structure. From this specimen it appears that the great Mastodon of the Ohio was not unlike the elephant In its general outline, though somewhat longer and thicker. It had a trunk or proboscis, tusks which curved upward, and four molar teeth in each jaw, but no incisors. But another remarkable peculiarity, and which entirely separates the Mastodon from the Elephant, is that the young animal had a pair of tusks, placed horizontally in the lower jaw, and of these tusks one only became developed, and that in the adult male: both were early shed in the female. In the midst of a collection of Mastodon bones imbedded in mud, a mass of small branches, grass, and leaves, in a half bruised state, and a species of reed common in Virginia, were discovered; the whole appeared to have been enveloped in a sac, probably the stomach of the animal. In another instance traces of the proboscis were observed. The tusks are composed of ivory, and vary somewhat in the direction and degree of their curvature. The bones of this colossal quadruped are found remarkably fresh and well preserved, and are generally impregnated with iron. No living instance of this creature is on record, and there can be no doubt that its race has long since been extinct.
"Big-bone Lick, where so many remains of the Mastodon and other extinct quadrupeds have been dug up, is distant from Cincinnati about twenty-three miles in a south-west direction. This celebrated bog is situated in a nearly level plain, in a valley bounded by gentle slopes, which lead up to flat table-lands composed of blue argillaceous (Silurian) limestone, and marl. The general course of the meandering stream which flows through the plain, is from east to west. There are two springs on the southern or left bank, rising from marshes, and two on the opposite bank; the most western of which, called the Gum Lick, is at the point where a small tributary joins the principal stream. The quaking bogs on this side are now more than fifteen acres in extent; but all the marshes were formerly larger, before the surrounding forest was partially cleared away. Within the memory of persons now living, the wild bisons or buffaloes crowded to these springs; but they have retreated many years, and are now as unknown to the inhabitants as the Mastodon itself. The bog in the spots where the salt springs rise is so soft, that a pole may be forced down into it many yards perpendicularly.
"The greater numbers both of the entire skeletons and the separate bones have been taken up from black mud, about twelve feet below the level of the Creek. It is supposed that the bones of the mastodons found here could not have belonged to less than one hundred individuals: those of the fossil Elephant (_Elephas primigenius_) to twenty; besides which a few bones of the Megalonyx, and of a species of stag, horse, and bison, are stated to have been collected. The greatest depth of the black mud has not been ascertained; it is composed chiefly of clay, with a mixture of calcareous matter and sand, and contains 5 parts in 100 of sulphate of lime, with some animal matter. Layers of gravel occur in the midst of it at various depths. It contains remains of seeds, and of several species and genera of fresh-water and terrestrial shells. It is impossible to view this plain without at once concluding that it has remained unchanged in all its principal features, from the period when the extinct quadrupeds inhabited the banks of the Ohio and its tributaries.
"There are two buffalo paths or trails still extant in the woods, and both lead directly to springs: the one which strikes off in a northerly direction from the Gum Lick, may be traced eastward through the forest for several miles. It is three or four yards wide, and only partially overgrown with grass, and sixty years ago was as bare, hard, and well trodden, as a high road. It is well known that during great droughts in the Pampas of South America, the horses, deer, and cattle, throng to the rivers in such numbers, that the foremost of the crowd are pushed into the stream by the pressure of others behind, and are sometimes carried away by thousands, and drowned. In their eagerness to drink the saline waters and lick the salt, the heavy mastodons and elephants seem in like manner to have pressed upon each other, and sunk in the soft quagmires of Kentucky."[79]
[Footnote 79: Extracted from Sir Charles Lyell's "Travels in North America," vol. ii. chap. xvii. 1845.]
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES.
I. Fossil Bears of the Caverns. (Plate LXXIII.) For many centuries certain caves in Germany have been celebrated for their osseous treasures, particularly those in Franconia. The most remarkable of these caverns is that of Gaylenreuth, which lies to the north-west of the village of that name, on the left bank of the river Wiesent, on the confines of Bayreuth.[80] The entrance to this cave is in the face of a perpendicular rock, and leads to a series of chambers from fifteen to twenty feet high, and several hundred feet in extent, terminating in a deep chasm. The cave is quite dark; and the icicles and pillars of stalactite, reflected by the light of the torches, which it is necessary to use, present a highly picturesque effect. The floor is literally paved with bones and fossil teeth, and the pillars and corbels of stalactite also contain similar remains. The bones are generally scattered and broken, but not rolled; they are lighter and less solid than recent bones, and are often incrusted with stalactites. Three-fourths of the bones belong to two species of bears (_Ursus_), the remainder to hyænas, tigers, wolves, foxes, gluttons, weasels, and other small carnivora. Those belonging to bears are referable to two extinct species: the largest has the skull more prominent on the front than any living species; it is named _Ursus spelæus_, or cavern bear; the other has a flat forehead, and is the _Ursus priscus_ of Cuvier. The Hyena was allied to the spotted hyena of the Cape, but differed in the form of the teeth and skull. Bones of the Elephant and Rhinoceros are said to have been discovered, together with those of existing animals, and fragments of sepulchral urns of high antiquity.[81]
[Footnote 80: See Medals of Creation, vol. ii. p. 869, for an interesting account of the present state of these caverns, by my friend. Major Willoughby Montague.]
[Footnote 81: Dr. Buckland's "Reliquia Diluviana" contains a full account of the most remarkable ossiferous caverns and their contents.]
Similar ossiferous caves occur in England; of these, the most remarkable now accessible are Kent's Hole, near Torquay, and Banwell Cave, in the Mendip Hills, near the village of Banwell. The latter may be easily visited, as the Exeter railway passes within three miles of the village, and there is a station, with vehicles to convey passengers to Banwell.
II. The Belemnite. (Plates LIX. and LX.) Among the innumerable relics which abound in the secondary deposits, there are perhaps no fossil bodies that have excited so much curiosity, or given rise to so many fanciful conjectures as to their nature and origin, as the long, cylindrical, fusiform, crystalline stones, called _Belemnites_ by naturalists, and _thunderbolts_ by common observers. Mr. Parkinson gives an amusing account (vol. iii. p. 122) of the discordant opinions entertained at various times respecting the nature of these bodies.
It would be irrelevant to dwell on the history of the successive attempts that have been made to elucidate the origin and structure of the Belemnite. It will suffice to describe concisely the present state of our knowledge as to the organization of the original.
Mr. Miller, in 1823,[82] showed that the Belemnite was the rostrum or osselet of an animal allied to the Sepia, or Cuttle-fish, and gave a restored outline of the supposed form of the original, with the Belemnite in its presumed natural situation. Dr. Buckland and M. Agassiz imagined that they had traced a natural connexion between certain species of Belemnites that abound in the Lias, and the ink bag and other soft parts of the Sepiæ or Calamaries found associated with them; and they suggested the name of _Belemno-sepia_ for the supposed animal of the Belemnite,[83]
[Footnote 82: Geological Transactions, New Series, vol. ii.; and Dr. Buckland's Bridgewater Essay.]
[Footnote 83: Bridgewater Essay, p. 374.]
In 1842, the late Mr. Channing Pearce described, under the name of _Belemnoteuthis antiquus_, a naked (destitute of a shell,) cephalopod, which occurs in immense numbers in certain beds of the Oxford clay, especially at Christian Malford, in Wiltshire. This animal has at the lower apical part a conical osselet of a horny substance, and fibrous structure, enclosing a chambered siphunculated shell, which becomes gradually thinner at the upper part, and forms a cup-like receptacle, in which is placed the ink-bag. The soft body of an elongated oval form, with a pair of lateral palleal fins, two large sessile eyes, and with eight uncinated arms and a pair of long tentacula, are preserved in a more or less distinct and perfect state in several specimens that have lately been discovered. Mr. Channing Pearce, Mr. Cunnington, and other collectors of these interesting remains, were convinced that this cephalopod was entirely distinct from the animal to which the Belemnite belonged.
In 1844, Professor Owen laid before the Royal Society "A description of certain Belemnites preserved with a great proportion of their soft parts in the Oxford clay, at Christian Malford, Wilts."[84] In this memoir (for which one of the royal medals of the Society was awarded) the author describes as the soft parts of the Belemnite the remains of the animal which Mr. Channing Pearce had two years previously shown to belong to a different genus (_Belemnoteuthis_). Belying on the correctness of Professor Owen's views, I gave an abstract of this memoir in my "_Medals of Creation_," and stated that belemnites had been discovered with the osselet, receptacle, and ink-bag, in their natural position, and with remains of the mantle, body, fins, eyes, and the tentacula, with their horny rings and hooks.[85]
[Footnote 84: Philos. Trans. Part I. 1844. p. 65.]
[Footnote 85: Medals of Creation, vol. ii. p. 467.]
The discovery by my son (Mr. Reginald Neville Mantell) of some remarkably perfect specimens of belemnites in the Oxford clay, exposed in the railway works on which he was engaged, near Trowbridge, in Wilts, led me to examine the structure of the Belemnoteuthis with more attention than I had hitherto done, as well as the evidence adduced by Professor Owen in proof that the fossil osselet, the Belemnite, belonged to the same genus of cephalopoda. I found that _no specimen had been obtained in which the phragmocone, or terminal chambered part of the Belemnoteuthis_ (of Pearce), _was situated in the alveolus of a Belemnite_; but Professor Owen having assumed that the osselet of the former must have originally been protected by a rostrum, or guard, described the soft parts as belonging to the animal of the Belemnite, conceiving that the phragmocone of the Belemnoteuthis was that of a Belemnite that had slipped out of the guard.
In a communication to the Royal Society, in 1848, I demonstrated how utterly at variance with the facts were these conclusions, and pointed out the essential distinctive characters that separated the two extinct genera, so far as the specimens then discovered would warrant.[86] Other illustrative examples of the Belemnite have since been obtained; and in a supplementary paper read before the Royal Society, February 14th, of the present year (1850), I have stated what appears to me to be the extent of our present knowledge of the organization of the Belemnite. I subjoin an abstract of that paper, which embodies the result of an examination of many hundred specimens of Belemnites and Belemnoteuthites. The annexed outline, or diagram, shows the known structures of the Belemnite; of the soft parts of the animal, a few imperfect carbonaceous traces, apparently of the mantle, around and between the shelly processes of the upper part of the phragmocone, are the only vestiges I have been able to detect. The most perfect Belemnite hitherto discovered consists of,
[Footnote 86: Philos. Trans. 1848, p. 171.]
1. An external _Capsule_ (_e_) which invested the osselet or sepiostaire, and extending upwards, constituted the external sheath of the receptacle.
2. The _Osselet_, characterized by its fibrous radiated structure, terminating distally in a solid rostrum or guard (_i_), having an alveolus, or conical hollow (_g_), to receive the apical portion of the chambered phragmocone, and expanding proximally into a thin cup, which became confluent with the capsule, and formed the receptacle (_b, b_,) for the viscera.
3. The _Phragmocone_ (_d_), or chambered, siphunculated (_c_), internal shell; the apex of which occupied the alveolus (_g_) of the guard, and the upper part constituted a capacious chamber, from the basilar margin of which proceeded two long, flat, testaceous, processes (_a, a_,).
These structures comprise all that are at present known of the animal to which the fossil commonly called "_Belemnite_," belonged.
Of the _Belemnoteuthis_, the cephalopod which Professor Owen considers to be a Belemnite, many examples of the body with eight uncinated arms and a pair of long tentacula, and with an ink-bag, and palleal fins, have been discovered. The osselet of this animal, like that of the Belemnite, has a fibro-radiated structure, investing a conical chambered shell; but this organ, for reasons fully detailed in the memoir, could never have been contained within the alveolus of a Belemnite.
No _certain_ evidence has been obtained of the occurrence of an _ink-bag_ in natural connexion with a Belemnite.
Diagram of the known Structures of the _Belemnites Puzosianus_, from Trowbridge.
_a, a_, dorsal processes.
_b, b_, the receptacle.
_c, c_, the siphuncle.
_d, d_, the phragmocone.
_e_, the capsule.
_f_, the inferior end of the phragmocone.
_g_, the alveolus of the guard.
_h_, vertical section of the guard.
_i_, the guard, or rostrum of the osselet.
_k_, sulcus, or furrow, on the ventral aspect of this species of Belemnite.
_l_, capsule, or periostricum.
_m_, the dorsal line.
_n_, transverse section, showing the fibrous radiated structure of the guard.
In the annexed outline the several parts are represented in their natural relative positions. The capsule, or most external investment, (_e_) is seen only in section, being removed to expose the rostrum or guard (the fossil body generally known as the Belemnite). The upper three-fourths of the rostrum are also taken away, to show the phragmocone which it originally enveloped. The straight transverse lines denote the chambers of the phragmocone; the latter is seen extending downwards till it terminates in a point or apex; that part of the cavity in the guard is called the _alveolus_. The _siphuncle_, or tube which extends through the entire series of chambers, and is situated on the ventral margin, is indicated at _c, c_. The dorsal processes (_a, a_) are seen on their inner aspect at the upper part; the diverging lines (_m_) between them indicate the impressions of the soft parts, of which some traces remain.
III. Fossil Remains of Birds.--_The Moa, or Dinornis of New Zealand._ The bones of birds are of extreme rarity in a fossil state. Throughout the immense series of the palæozoic and secondary formations--the accumulated sedimentary deposits of innumerable ages--no unquestionable indications of the existence of this class of highly organized beings have been brought to light.
In the Triassic, or New Red argillaceous sandstones of the valley of the Connecticut River, in North America, some very remarkable phenomena have, however, been discovered, and which in the opinions of many eminent observers render it highly probable, that at the period when these strata were deposited, numerous birds, some of colossal magnitude, abounded on the then dry land. When slabs of these sandstones are split asunder, or exposed, so as to exhibit the sedimentary surface which separates one layer from another, the foot-prints of many species of bipeds are perceived deeply impressed on the stone, and disposed in such manner as to prove that they are the tracks of animals that walked over the surface of the deposit when it was in a soft or plastic state. The close analogy of these imprints to those of birds' feet, not only in their general resemblance, but also in the disposition of the tracks, and in the relation of the distance of the stride, and the depth and shallowness of the impressions, to the size of the respective feet, tends to corroborate the inference first enunciated by Professor Hitchcock, and subsequently confirmed by other geologists, that these mysterious markings on the rock, are natural records of the existence of various tribes of birds during the Triassic period;[87] but unfortunately the only certain evidence of the correctness of this opinion--remains of the skeletons--is wanting; not a vestige of a vertebrated animal of a higher class than fishes and reptiles has been discovered.[88]
[Footnote 87: Travels in North America, vol. ii. pl. 7.]
[Footnote 88: See Wonders of Geology, vol. ii. p. 556. Ornithichnites, or Fossil Footprints of Birds; Medals of Creation, vol. i. p. 808.]
In the vast fluviatile formation--the Wealden--of the south-east of England, which abounds in the remains of terrestrial plants and reptiles, many fragments of bones of such tenuity as to indicate that they belonged to animals capable of flight, have from time to time been collected since my first discovery and announcement, in 1822, of supposed birds' bones in the strata of Tilgate Forest. Some of these relics were declared by Baron Cuvier, and subsequently by Professor Owen, to be unquestionably those of birds; probably some species of waders. But recent observations have rendered it doubtful whether all the specimens of this class from the Wealden, like those from Stonesfield, are not to be regarded as referable to flying reptiles (Pterodactyles).[89]
[Footnote 89: Wonders of Geology, vol. i. p. 438, 440. I still think it probable, however, that bones of birds will be detected among the Wealden fossils.]
In the chalk of Kent several bones of a very large flying animal have been obtained from a quarry at Burham, near Maidstone; some of these are figured and described in Professor Owen's beautiful work on British Fossil Mammals and Birds, as those of a bird allied to the Albatross; but the occurrence in the same quarry of jaws with teeth, and other undoubted remains of a gigantic Pterodactyle,[90] and the absence in the specimens figured of osteological characters exclusively ornithic, seem to support the conclusion that these also must be ascribed to flying reptiles.
[Footnote 90: These fossils are in the splendid museum of J. S. Bowerbank, Esq. of Highbury Grove, Islington.]
In the most ancient tertiary strata unquestionable vestiges of birds occur; in the Sub-Himalaya eocene deposits, they are associated with bones of the extinct elephantine mammalia of India; in those of the Paris basin with the remains of the Palæotheria, &c. In the miocene and pliocene formations, the bones and even egg-shells of several species and genera have been detected. The remains of birds, however, even in comparatively recent deposits, were of such rare occurrence as to be ranked by the collector of fossils among the most precious of his acquisitions; but a few years ago, a most extraordinary discovery in our Antipodean colony. New Zealand, astonished and delighted the palæontologist, by placing before him hundreds of bones of numerous extinct genera of birds, some of which far exceed in magnitude those of the most gigantic living species, the Ostrich.
In various localities of the maritime districts of New Zealand, there had been observed in the beds of rivers and streams, fossil bones of birds of colossal magnitude, belonging to many species and several genera, associated with similar relics of smaller species. These bones had attracted the attention of the natives long ere the country was visited by Europeans; and traditions are rife among the New Zealanders that this race formerly existed in great numbers, and served as food to their remote ancestors. They also believe that some of the largest species have been seen alive within the memory of man; and even affirm that individuals still exist in the unfrequented and inaccessible parts of the interior of the country. They call the bird _Moa_, and state that its head and tail were adorned with magnificent plumes of feathers, which were worn by their ancient chiefs as ornaments of distinction.
Nine years since, a fragment of a thigh-bone of a bird larger than that of the Ostrich was brought to England by Mr. Rule, and submitted to the examination of Professor Owen, who pronounced it to belong to a gigantic bird of the _Struthious_ (Ostrich) order. A few years afterwards several collections of vertebræ, bones of the extremities, &c. were transmitted to England by Messrs. Williams, Wakefield, Earle, &c., which corroborated that opinion, and proved that there formerly existed in the islands of New Zealand, colossal birds of a type distinct from any known in other parts of the world. In 1846 and 1847, my eldest son, Mr. Walter Mantell, who has resided in New Zealand several years, made an extensive and highly interesting collection of these fossil remains, which arrived in England in 1848. This series contains _skulls_, with the _mandibles or beaks_, bones of other parts of the skeleton, and _portions of the egg-shells_, of several extinct species and genera of birds; presenting remarkable deviations from the previously known types to which they are most nearly allied.
This valuable accession to our knowledge of the osteology of this extinct race of Ostrich-like birds--some individuals of which must have attained a height of from ten to twelve feet--has yielded important results as to the form, structure, and economy, of these colossal bipeds, and the prevailing characters of the terrestrial fauna of New Zealand in very remote periods. The collection, consisting of above 700 specimens, is now in the British Museum: it was obtained chiefly from a bed of _menaccanite_ or titaniferous iron-sand, that had evidently been washed down by torrents from the volcanic region of Mount Egmont; that snow-capped ridge which forms so striking a feature in the physical geography of the North Island, and is the source of the fresh-water streams that discharge themselves into the ocean along the western shore. The tract of sand from which my son dug up these relics, is on the coast near the embouchure of a small river called Waingongoro, between Wanganui and Waimate. That stream evidently once flowed into the sea far from its present course, for lines of cliffs extend inland from the now dry sand-spit, and bear marks of the erosive action of currents.[91] A few months since, I received from my son another most interesting collection of fossil bones (comprising above 500 specimens), chiefly obtained from the eastern shores of the Middle Island of New Zealand, when engaged as Government Commissioner for the settlement of native claims. These were dug up from a morass of small extent, lying in a little creek or bay at Waikouaiti, some twenty miles north of Otago. This swamp, which is only visible at low water, is composed of vegetable fibres (apparently of the _Phormium tenax_), sand, and animal matter. The bones are of a deep brown colour, and almost as fresh as if recently taken from a tar-pit. Among the specimens are crania and mandibles, and bones of enormous size. The most remarkable are _the entire series of phalangeals, and the two tarso-metatarsals_, (26 in number,) _of the right and left foot of the same individual bird_ (_Dinornis robustus_), which were found standing erect, one a yard in advance of the other; as if the bird had sunk into the mire, and unable to extricate itself, had perished on the spot. These bones were carefully exhumed and numbered seriatim, and are the only instances of the bones of the foot and metatarsus found in natural connexion; they are, consequently, the first certain examples known of the structure of the feet of the colossal birds of New Zealand. The foot of the Moa, to which these bones belonged, must have been 16 inches long, and 18 inches wide; and the height of the bird about ten feet. (_See the Frontispiece._)
[Footnote 91: I must refer for details to the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, No. XV. August 1848.]
It would extend this article far beyond the limits assigned to this work, were I to attempt even a cursory account of all the facts and inferences connected with these discoveries. The anatomical and physiological characters of many species and genera will be found in the admirable Memoirs on the _Dinornis_, _Palapteryx_, _Notornis_, &c. by Prof. Owen, in the Transactions of the Zoological Society.[92]
[Footnote 92: I regret to state that the egg-shells, and many highly interesting bones, belonging to unknown genera of birds, from Rangatapu or Waingongoro, in my son's first collection, remain undescribed. My notes and observations on the geological position of the ossiferous deposits of the North Island of New Zealand, derived from the sketches and letters of Mr. Walter Mantell, are published in the Geological Journal; those on his collection of fossils from the Middle Island will appear in the same publication in the course of the present year (1850).]
From the facts at present known as to the position of the ossiferous deposits of New Zealand, there is reason to conclude that they bear the same relation to the present state of the country, as the alluvial loam and clay containing the bones of mammoths, Irish Elks, &c. to that of Great Britain. I think we may safely infer that at a period geologically recent, but historically very remote, those islands were densely peopled by tribes of ostrich-like birds of species and genera which have long since become extinct; that many species existed contemporary with the Maories or native human inhabitants, and that the last of the family were exterminated, like the Irish Elk, and the Dodo, by man. If, as the natives affirm, some of the race still exist in the unfrequented parts of the country, they are probably diminutive species, like the Apteryx or _Kivi-Kivi_, which is the only living representative known to naturalists, of this once numerous tribe of colossal Struthionidæ. The only fossil osseous remains from New Zealand not referable to birds are bones of two species of Seals, and one femur and a few other bones of a Dog. Associated with the relics of the Dinornis and other extinct genera, and unquestionably coeval with them, are crania, mandibles, and other bones, of the living species of Apteryx, Albatross, Penguin, Notornis, Nestor, Water-hen, &c.
The fragments of egg-shells of Dinornis, from Rangatapu, belong to three distinct types, each of very large size; my son, to convey an idea of the magnitude of one egg, of which he dug up a large portion, says, "a gentleman's hat would make a capital egg-cup for it." The markings on the surface of the shells bear a greater resemblance to those on the eggs of the Rhea and Cassowary than of the Ostrich.
A remarkable fact mentioned by my son throws some light as to the comparatively recent extirpation of the Moa. In one spot the natives pointed out some little mounds covered with herbage, as consisting of heaps of ashes and bones, the refuse of the fires and feasts left by their remote ancestors. Upon digging into them, a quantity of burnt bones was discovered: these belonged to Man, Moa, and Dog, and were promiscuously intermingled. These calcined bones present no traces whatever either of the earthy powder or manaccanite sand which the cells and pores of the fossil bones invariably contain. If, as the natives affirm, these are the rejectamenta of the feasts of the aborigines, the practice of cannibalism by the New Zealanders must have been of very ancient date, and could not have originated, as Professor Owen supposed, from the want of animal food in consequence of the extirpation of the colossal birds. (See _ante_, p. xi.)
IV. Botanical arrangement of Fossil Vegetables.--Mr. Artis, in the Introduction of his work, offers some judicious observations as to the proper method in which the study of Fossil Botany should be pursued. He remarks, "that from the imperfect state in which fossil vegetables are generally found, the ordinary characters by which recent plants are referred to their congeners, can scarcely ever be detected in them. The sexual organs on which the systems of Linnæus and Jussieu are founded, and even the integuments of those organs while in the state of flowering, have uniformly perished. The external parts of the seed or fruit exist, indeed, in a fossil state, but they are almost always insulated from the other organs. If leaves are found, it is almost certain that scarcely any portion of the stem will be attached to them; if the external parts of a trunk, then very rarely any vestiges of the branches and foliage. And when traces of the internal structure can be discovered, it is seldom that the external character of the stem remains.
"In consequence of this deficiency of the essential characters on which the determinations of the botanist are founded, there exists a necessity for examining more minutely and accurately than has yet been done, the internal structure of recent plants; their habits of growth, the cicatrices or scars left on the stem by the leaves that are spontaneously shed, the different appearances which their fruits exhibit in their various stages of development--all these points must be minutely studied before we can obtain any certainty as to the identity of fossil and living species of plants.
"It is not by publishing detached and unconnected delineations and descriptions of fossil plants, as they occasionally occur, that the knowledge of them can be considerably promoted. A systematic arrangement must be formed; and the first step to this is the accurate determination of the species. _Hoc opus, hic labor est._"
"It will be seen," he observes, "in the course of this work, how easy it would be to imagine parts of the same specimen to be different species, when they happen to be broken and dispersed. I can confidently assert, that in at least a thousand different specimens which I have had in my possession, not more than a hundred distinct species can be recognised. Furthermore, still fewer indeed can be referred to any living species; for it is not the fern-like leaf of a plant, the palm-like cicatrix, or the cane-like joint of a stem, that will suffice to identify them with those tribes of the vegetable kingdom. The whole anatomy of the plant must be studied. The subject has, indeed, been begun by Professor Martins, in his comparison of certain fossil stems of plants with those of the living plants growing in the Brazils, but the study is as yet too new to afford certain results. Accordingly, several of that professor's opinions are at variance with those of M. Adolphe Brongniart, who has also compared the recent and fossil vegetables together on this plan. But by following up the comparison, which has been so successfully adopted by Baron Cuvier, in the study of fossil animals,[93] similar results may be expected, and a knowledge of the extinct plants be at length attained."
[Footnote 93: Recherches sur les Ossemens Fossiles.]
Mr. Artis then gives an abstract of the systems of Baron Schlotheim, Count Sternberg, Professor Martins, and M. Adolphe Brongniart, which I am Induced to subjoin as a useful record of the state of fossil botany twelve years ago:--
"The Baron Schlotheim, who published in 1804 the first part of a Flora der Vorwelt, followed up his researches of this kind by a catalogue of his cabinet, under the title of 'Die Petrefactenkunde auf ihrem jetzigen Standpunkte erläutert,' published in 1820, to which two Appendices have since been added in 1822 and 1823.
"The arrangement made by the Baron, so far as regards the vegetable part of his cabinet, is as follows. His specimens are first divided into five Sections, or Orders:--
1. Dendrolithes, containing the remains of trees, which are subdivided into three sub-sections.
A. _Lithoxylites_, of which no characters are given, but from the specimens mentioned by him, he evidently arranges in this place the wood-stone and wood-opal of the mineralogists.
B. _Lithanthracites_, in which are placed the bituminized stems, and other parts of trees.
C. _Bibliolithes_.--Fossil leaves, mostly of the later formations.
2. Botanolithes.--Comprising those kinds of fossil plants which cannot be considered either as trees or shrubs, nor as belonging to the plants of the old coal formation.
All the specimens belonging to the preceding sections are merely enumerated, and not distinguished by generic and trivial names, as is the case with the following.
Phytotypolithes.--Fossil plants of the stone-coal formation. These are divided systematically into genera and species. The genera are as follow:--
a. _Palmacites_, containing fifteen species. b. _Casuarinites_, " five. c. _Calamites_, " ten. d. _Filicites_, " twenty-three. e. _Lycopodiolithes_, " five. f. _Poacites_, " four.
In the whole sixty-two species.
4. Carpolithes.--Of which he enumerates fifteen species as present in his collection. This division is considered as a genus, as is also the next.
5. Anthotypolithes.--The cabinet contains only one species, namely the _Anthotypolithes ranunculiformis_."
* * * * *
In 1820, Gaspard Count Sternberg published in German, the first number of a work which has been translated by the Comte de Bray, under the title of "Essai d'un Exposé Geognostico-Botanique de la Flore du Monde Primitif." Of this translation a second and third part appeared in 1823 and 1824. In these successive numbers the Count has communicated the state of his knowledge as it grew up under his hands, in consequence of his own labours and those of his friend, Baron Schlotheim. The genera, as they are successively developed in the work, are the following:--
1. _Lepidodendron._--Stem scaly; the scales leaf-bearing, surrounding the stem spirally. In a subsequent number, what are here called scales, are denominated scale-like cicatrices.
This genus is subdivided in the first number into two sub-genera, but this division is not noticed in the additional species quoted in the succeeding numbers.
_Lepidotæ._--Scales convex.
_Alveolariæ._--Scales sub-concave.
2. _Variolariæ._--Stem shield-bearing, or warty; shields leaf-bearing, surrounding the stem spirally.
3. _Calamitæ._--Stem striated, intercepted with sutures at the articulations.
4. _Syringodendron._--Stem arborescent, in the form of pipes agglutinated together, with naked glandules surrounding the stem spirally.
In the second number the following genera are given:--
5. _Rhytidolepis._--Stem arborescent, streaked longitudinally with elevated wrinkles; shields surrounding the stem spirally.
6. _Flabellaria._--Leaves part stalked, divided and expanded like a fan.
7. _Schlotheimia._--Stem jointed, contracted at the articulation, verticillate.
8. _Annularia._--Leaves disposed in a whirl, inserted in a proper ring.
9. _Nœggerathia._--Stem as thick as a goose-quill; leaves alternate, approximate, reverse-ovate, half embracing the stem, pectinato-toothed at the top, the remainder of the edge uncut.
10. _Osmunda._ } This and the following have no generic characters 11. _Asplenium._ } assigned to them, the recent genera being referred to.
12. _Rotularia._--Leaves verticillate, expanded in the form of a small wheel.
The third number contains the following additional genera:--
13. _Lepidolepis._--Scale-like cicatrices truncated at their top.
14. _Thuites_, of which he gives no characters, but refers to his figures.
15. _Antholites._
16. _Carpolites._
17. _Conites._--Fossil strobili.
18. _Sphenopteris._
19. _Polypodiolithus._
20. _Myriophyllites._
21. _Phyllites._
22. _Algacites_, which the French translator, on obtaining the opinion of Professor Agardh, has changed into _Sargassum_; that celebrated algologist having considered it as identically the same as that genus of recent algæ.
The genera thus successively established, may be arranged in the following order:--
A. Fossil plants of unknown origin, in which the stem is large, and forms the only, or at least the most prominent character; including, 1. _Lepidodendron_; 2. _Variolaria_; 3. _Calamites_; 4. _Syringodendron_; 5. _Rhytidolepis_; 13. _Lepidolepis_.
B. Fossil plants, of unknown origin, in which the leaves form the prominent character; including, 6. _Flabellaria_; 7. _Schlotheimia_; 8. _Annularia_; 9. _Nœggerathia_; 12. _Rotularia_.
C. Fossil parts of unknown plants; including, 15, _Antholites_; 16. _Carpolites_; 17. _Conites_.
D. Fossil plants, or parts of plants referable to living types; including, 10. _Osmunda_; 11. _Asplenium_; 14. _Thuites_; 18. _Sphenopteris_; 19. _Polypodiolites_; 20. _Myriophyllites_; 22. Algacites.
* * * * *
In November 1821, Professor Martins read to the Botanical Society of Ratisbon, a paper which was afterwards published in its Memoirs for 1822. This paper was entitled, "_De Plantis nonnullis Antediluvianis ope specierum inter tropicos viventium illustrandis_;" in it several of the species mentioned by Baron Schlotheim and Count Sternberg are referred to the orders and genera of recent plants; and the following genera are proposed:--
1. _Filicites_, analogous to the Arborescent ferns.
2. _Palmacites_, analogous to the Palmæ.
3. _Bambusites_, analogous to Bambusia, and other arborescent grasses; these are the _Calamites_ of other authors.
4. _Yuccites_, analogous to the Cuciphoræ, Dracenæ, Pandani, Yuccæ, and Velloriæ, of botanical writers.
5. _Cactites_, analogous to the Cacti.
6. _Euphorbites_, analogous to the Cereiform species of Euphorbia.
7. _Lychnophorites_, analogous to _Lychnophora_, a genus of plants found by Martius in Brazil, which belongs to the order of the Compositæ, and is allied to the _Vernoniæ_ of Linnæus and the _Pollalestæ_ of Humboldt.
* * * * *
M. Adolphe Brongniart has given the following classification of fossil plants, in his Essay "_Sur la Classification et la Distribution de Végétaux Fossiles_" inserted in the "Mémoires du Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle;" and also printed separately in quarto, Paris, 1822:--
STEMS.
Class I.--Stems whose internal organization is recognisable.
1. Exogenites.--Wood formed of regular concentric layers.
2. Endogenites.--Wood composed of insulated bundles of vessels, which are more numerous towards the circumference than at the centre.
Class II.--Stems whose internal organization is no longer distinct, but which are characterised by their external form.
3. Culmites.--Stem jointed, smooth; a single impression at each articulation.[94]
4. Calamites.--Stem jointed, regularly striated; impressions rounded, small, numerous, forming a ring round each articulation, or sometimes wanting.[95]
5. Syringodendron.--Stem channelled, not jointed; impressions dot-like or linear, arranged in quincunx.[96]
6. Sigillaria.--Stem channelled, not jointed; impressions in the form of disks, arranged in quincunx.
7. Clathraria.--Stem neither channelled, nor jointed; impressions in the form of rounded disks, disposed in quincunx.[97]
8. Sagenaria.--Stem without joints, or furrows, covered with conical rhomboidal tubercles disposed in quincunx, having at their upper extremity an impression in the form of a disk.[98]
9. Stigmaria.--Stem without joints, or furrows; impressions rounded, distant, disposed in quincunx.[99]
[Footnote 94: These stems appear to M. Brongniart to belong to the arborescent grasses, to _Calamus_ or its allied genera.]
[Footnote 95: M. de Candolle suggested to M. Brongniart that these stems belong to some plants of the natural order of Equisetaceæ.]
[Footnote 96: M. Brongniart considers these remains to belong to genera which are entirely extinct.]
[Footnote 97: M. Brongniart shows in his paper the great agreement between these two genera, and the stems of ferns, in every respect excepting magnitude, and considers them as evidently owing their origin to plants of that natural order rather than to the palms.]
[Footnote 98: The stems of this genus are referable, in the opinion of M. Brongniart, to those of plants belonging to the family of _Lycopodiaceæ_, notwithstanding the great difference of size between them and those of the recent plants of that natural order.]
[Footnote 99: These stems, M. Brongniart supposes, belong rather to plants of the natural order of _Aroideæ_, than to the _Euphorbiaceæ_, or to the Palms to which they have been ascribed by other authors.]
FOLIAGE.
10. Lycopodites.--Leaves linear, or setaceous, without ribs, or traversed by a single rib, inserted all round the stem, or in a double row.
This genus is subdivided into four sections, as follow:--
_a._ Leaves narrow, lanceolate, inserted in a regular manner all round a stem having the characters of Sagenaria.
_b._ Leaves setaceous, inserted in a double row only; stem not reticulated. These he considers as the proper Lycopodites.
_c._ Leaves broad, without any apparent ribs, inserted irregularly all round the stem. These differ much from the rest of the genus.
_d._ Leaves blunt, short, closely applied to the stem.
Class III.--11. Filicites.--Frond disposed on a flat surface, symmetrical; secondary rib simple, forked, or rarely anastomosing.
These are divided Into five sub-genera:--
_a._ _Glossopteris._--Frond simple, not jagged, traversed by a single mid-rib, without distinct secondary ribs.
_b._ _Sphenopteris._--Pinnules wedge-shaped, rounded or lobed at the extremity; ribs palmate or radiating from the base of the pinnule.
_c._ _Neuropteris._--Pinnules rounded, not lobed, nor adhering to the rachis by their base; ribs scarcely visible beyond the base, in general very distinct, and two-forked.
_d._ _Pecopteris._--Frond pinnatifid; pinnules adherent by their base to the rachis, traversed by a mid-rib; secondary ribs pinnate.
_e._ _Odontopteris._--Pinnules adhering to the rachis by the whole of their base; mid-rib none; secondary ribs running out perpendicularly from the rachis.
12. Sphœnophyllites.--Leaves verticillate, wedge-shaped, truncate; ribs radiating, two-forked.[100]
13. Asterophyllites.--Leaves verticillate, with a single rib.[101]
14. Fucoides.--Frond not symmetrical, often disposed on a flat surface; ribs none, or badly defined.
15. Phyllites.--Leaves with ribs well defined, repeatedly divided, or anastomosing.[102]
16. Poacites.--Leaves linear; ribs parallel.
17. Palmacites.--Leaves fan-shape.
[Footnote 100: M. Brongniart considers these to belong to some extinct genus of plants, allied to, although perfectly distinct from, the recent genus _Marsilea_.]
[Footnote 101: These the author thinks are the remains of an extinct genus of plants.]
[Footnote 102: The character of the ribs here given belongs exclusively to leaves of plants of the dicotyledonous tribe; as those of the next genus _Poacites_ equally restricts them to the other great tribe of monocotyledonous plants.]
Class IV. _Organs of fructification._
Order I. Carpolithes.--Fruits or seeds.
Order II. Antholithes.--Flowers.[103]
[Footnote 103: These orders are too little known to be divided at present into genera.]
The numerous additions and modifications, which subsequent experience and discoveries have led M. Brongniart to introduce into his classification, will be found in an article recently published (1849) in the "Dictionnaire Universel d'Histoire Naturelle," under the title of "Tableau des Genres de Végétaux Fossiles, considérés sous le point de vue de leur classification botanique et de leur distribution géologique."
V. Fossil Cephalopoda, Nautilus, Ammonite, &c.--The fossil remains of the molluscous animals, named _Cephalopoda_, from their organs of prehension being arranged around the head or upper part of the body, are the most ancient, numerous, and interesting, of this class of animated nature in the mineral kingdom. These relics are among the most varied and striking of the extinct beings that occur in the sedimentary strata, from the most ancient secondary formations, to the most recent tertiary. The living species are but a feeble representation of the countless myriads which must have swarmed in the ancient seas.
The animal of the Cephalopods is composed of a body, which is either enclosed in a shell, as in the Nautilus, or contains a calcareous osselet or support, as in the Sepia or Cuttle-fish; it has a distinct head, and eyes as perfect as in the vertebrated animals, with complicated organs of hearing, and a powerful masticating apparatus, surrounded by arms or tentacula. Below the head there is a tube which acts as a locomotive instrument, to propel the animal backwards, by the forcible ejection of the water that has served the purpose of respiration, and which can be ejected with considerable force by the contraction of the body.
Their fossil remains consist of the external shell and the internal osselet; and in the naked tribes, of the soft parts of the body, the ink-bag, &c., as noticed in the account of the Belemnite and Belemnoteuthis.
The shell varies exceedingly in the different genera. In the group characterised by smooth septa, and a medial or submedial siphuncle, as the Nautilus, the earliest or most ancient type is straight, as in the _Orthoceras_ (Plate LVIII. fig. 14) of the palæozoic formations; the intermediate forms present various modifications of the spiral, and terminate in the completely discoidal shell of the living genus; while the other group, that with sinuous or foliated septa and a dorsal siphuncle, commences in a discoidal type--the Ammonite, which gradually passes through the various modifications of _Crioceras_, _Scaphites_ (Plate LXI. fig. 10), _Hamites_ (Plate LXI. fig. 3), _Turrilites_ (Plate LXI. fig. 12), &c.; and finally becomes extinct in the straight Baculites (Plate LX. fig. 2).
In argillaceous strata, as the Kimmeridge and Oxford clay, London clay, &c., the shells of Cephalopoda are oftentimes beautifully preserved; the chambers are frequently filled with the solid matrix, but in many instances these cavities are lined either with brilliant pyrites or spar. Stony or sparry casts of the cells or chambers, the shell having perished, are another common state in which vestiges of these animals occur. Sometimes the cast of each chamber is isolated, so as to present a series from the innermost to the outermost cell. Sections of those casts, in which the chambers are filled up with spar, constitute specimens of great beauty and interest. The so-called snake-stones are, of course, mere casts of Ammonites;[104] those of Whitby, from the lias limestone, are well known to every collector; the casts of a very large species are common in the oolite, especially at Swindon, in Wiltshire, and in the neighbourhood of Bath.
VI. The Carboniferous Deposits, or Coal Measures.--The various deposits of Coal have manifestly been formed under different local circumstances. Some have been peat-bogs, to which repeated additions have been made by successive subsidences of the land; others have been deposited at the bottom of lakes and rivers, and these are associated with remains of fresh-water shells and Crustacea; others have accumulated in the abyss of the ocean, having been formed by the drifting and engulfing of immense rafts of trees and other vegetable matter, like those of the Mississippi; others in inland seas, the successive layers of vegetables having been supplied by periodical land-floods. There can be no doubt that coal has been, and may be, produced under all these conditions; and at different periods, and in various localities, all these causes may have been in operation. But the great series of ancient coal-formations present a remarkable uniformity of character, not only throughout Europe, but also in America and other parts of the world. A coal-field (as a group of strata of this kind is commonly termed), is generally composed of a series of layers of coal, clay, shale, and sand, of variable thicknesses, based on grit or limestone, abounding in marine shells and corals; and the most remarkable phenomenon is the constant presence _beneath_ every bed of coal, of a thick stratum of earthy clay, and of a layer of shale or slaty clay above it. One of the series of triple deposits of which a coal-field consists, presents therefore the following characters:--
1. _Under-clay_; the lowermost stratum. This is a tough argillaceous earth or clay, which on drying becomes of a grey colour, and very friable; it is occasionally black, from an intermixture of carbonaceous matter. This bed almost invariably contains an abundance of _Stigmariæ_ (see Plates XXII. XXIII.), of considerable length, with their rootlets attached, and which extend in every direction through the clay (as shown in the figures 1, 2, 6, pp. 199, 201). These roots commonly lie parallel with the planes of the stratum, and nearer to the top than to the bottom.
2. _Coal._--A carbonized mass, in which the external forms of the plants and trees composing it are obliterated, but the internal structure, in many instances, remains. Large trunks, and stems, and leaves, are rarely found in it.
3. _The Roof_, or upper bed.--This consists of slaty clay, abounding in leaves, trunks and branches, fruit, &c.; it includes layers and nodules of ironstone, inclosing leaves, insects, Crustacea, &c. In some localities beds of fresh-water shells, in others of marine shells, are intercalated with the shale; finely laminated clay, micaceous sand, grit, and pebbles of limestone, sandstone, &c. are also often interstratified. The principal illustrative specimens of the leaves, fruit, &c. (as those in Plate XXX. to Plate XXXIV.) are found in this bed.
Thus an uninterrupted series of strata, in which triple deposits of this kind are repeated, (often thirty or forty times, and through a thickness of several thousand feet,) constitutes the predominant character of the ancient coal formations wherever they have been explored. The difficulties attending a satisfactory solution of this problem, are fully stated in the last edition of my Wonders of Geology (Vol. ii. Lecture vii.), and to that work I must refer the reader for a more extended consideration of this highly interesting subject.
[Footnote 104: See Medals of Creation, vol. ii. chap. i.; and Thoughts on a Pebble, pp. 20, 69.]
VII. Coal.--The numerous fossil plants from the carboniferous strata that are figured in this work, render it necessary to put the general reader in possession of a concise view of the nature and mode of formation of those ancient accumulations of vegetable matter, which now constitute the beds of mineral fuel termed coal.
Although at the present time no one at all conversant with geology doubts the vegetable origin of Coal, the period is not distant when many eminent philosophers were sceptical on this point; and the truth in this, as in most other questions In natural philosophy, was established with difficulty. The experiments and observations of the late Dr. Macculloch mainly contributed to solve the problem as to the vegetable origin of this substance; and that eminent geologist successfully traced the transition of vegetable matter from peat-wood, brown coal, lignite, and jet, to coal, anthracite, graphite, and plumbago. Nor must the important labours of Mr. Parkinson in this field of research be forgotten. The first volume of the "Organic Remains of a former World," which treats of vegetable fossils, contains much original and valuable information on the transmutation of vegetable matter, by bituminous fermentation, into the various mineral substances in which its original nature and structure are altogether changed and obliterated; and that work may still be consulted with advantage by the student.
But though the vegetable origin of all coal will not admit of question, yet evidence of the original structure of the plants or trees whence it was derived is not always attainable. The most perfect coal seems to have undergone a complete liquefaction, and if any portions of the vegetable tissue remain, they appear as if imbedded in a pure bituminous mass. The slaty coal generally preserves traces of cellular or vascular tissue, and the spiral vessels and dotted cells of coniferous trees may often be detected by the microscope. In many instances the cells are filled with an amber-coloured resinous substance; in others the organization is so well preserved, that on the surface of a block of coal cracked by heat, the vascular tissue, and the dotted glands, may be observed. Some beds of coal appear to be wholly composed of minute leaves or disintegrated foliage; for if a mass recently extracted from the mine be split asunder, the exposed surfaces are found covered with delicate laminæ of carbonized leaves and fibres matted together; and flake after flake may be peeled off through a thickness of many inches, and the same structure be apparent. Rarely are any large trunks or branches observable in the beds of coal; but the general appearance of the carboniferous mass is that of an immense deposit of delicate foliage shed and accumulated in a forest, and consolidated by great pressure while undergoing that peculiar process by which vegetable matter is converted into carbon.
The essential conditions for the transmutation of vegetable substances into coal, appear to be the imbedding of large quantities of recent vegetables beneath deposits which shall exclude the air, and prevent the escape of the gaseous elements when released by decomposition from their organic combination; hence, according as these conditions have been more or less perfectly fulfilled, coal, jet, lignite, brown-coal, peat-wood, &c. will be the result.
VIII. Fossil Corals.--The real nature even of recent Corals is in general so imperfectly understood by the intelligent reader who has not paid especial attention to the department of natural history which treats of the class of animated nature termed Zoophytes, that in describing the Fossil Corals In my Wonders of Geology, I felt it necessary to devote one Lecture to the consideration of Corals and Crinoidea, in order to afford a popular exposition of the structure and economy of these highly Interesting tribes of animal existence.[105]
[Footnote 105: See Wonders of Geology, vol. ii. Lect. vi. p. 588.]
A very prevalent error regarding their nature Is, that the beautiful stony substances generally called corals, are fabricated by the animalcules which inhabit the cells when living, in the same manner as is the honeycomb of the bee and wasp. This opinion is utterly erroneous: the coral is secreted by the integuments or membranes with which when recent it was invested and permeated; in like manner as are the bones of the skeleton in the higher orders of animals by the tissues designed for that especial purpose, and wholly without the cognisance or control of the creature of which they constitute the internal support.
A general idea of the nature of the compound coral-zoophytes may be obtained by the examination of the common _Flustra_ or Sea-mat. This form of polyparia, when taken out of the water, appears to the naked eye like a patch of fine varnished net-work, adhering to a piece of sea-weed or stone; when viewed with a magnifying lens of moderate power, the surface is found beset with pores regularly disposed: and if the Flustra be examined while immersed in sea-water, its surface is seen to be invested by a gelatinous substance, and every pore is the aperture of a cell, whence issues a tube fringed at the extremity with long tentacula or feelers. These expand, then suddenly contract, withdraw into the cell, and again issue forth: the whole surface of the Flustra being studded with the hydra-like animalcules; each enjoying a distinct existence, the entire group being united by one common integument or calcareous frame-work. When the Flustra is exposed to the air, the polypes soon perish, the animal matter rapidly decomposes, and the calcareous lace-like skeleton alone remains. In the larger and more compact corals the phenomena are similar, differing only in degree. In a fossil state, the durable remains of the corals consist for the most part of the calcareous frame-work (or polyparium, as it is termed), which often possesses a crystalline structure; and in some instances is completely transmuted into silex, as in specimens from Antigua, the Falls of the Ohio, and from Tisbury in Wiltshire. (See Plate XXXVIII. figs. 12, 13.)
I must refer to the Wonders of Geology for a more extended notice of fossil corals, and other zoophytes, and will only add that the calcareous and siliceous spines or spicula, not only of sponges, but also of Gorgoniæ, and other corals, are often met with in a fossil state.[106]
[Footnote 106: See Wonders of Geology, vol. ii. Lect. vi. p. 634.]
IX. Cuvier's Discoveries. _The Fossil Quadrupeds of Montmartre._ (Plate LXXII.)--The Palæotheria, Anoplotheria, and other genera of extinct quadrupeds related to the _Tapir_, whose remains were first noticed in the gypseous limestone of Montmartre, near Paris, and which have since been found in many other localities of the same strata, are familiar to every one, from the just celebrity attached to the labours of the illustrious Cuvier, who restored as it were these lost denizens of an earlier world, in their native character and forms, and distinguished them by names long since become classical in the sciences which treat of the ancient history of the earth and its inhabitants.
The gypsum quarries spread over the flanks of Montmartre were many years since known to contain fossil bones of extinct quadrupeds, and some of these had been figured and described in 1768 by Guettard, and afterwards by Pralon, Lamanon, and Parumot: but it was not till the attention of M. Cuvier was directed to the subject by some specimens put into his hands by M. Vuarin, that the interest and importance of these fossils were understood. The curiosity of Baron Cuvier was so much excited by an inspection of a large collection of these bones, soon after he had been successfully engaged in the investigation of the remains of fossil Elephants and Mastodons, that he immediately began to obtain specimens from the quarries, and by liberally rewarding the workmen, and by unremitting personal research, he soon accumulated an immense quantity of bones of all sorts, belonging to numerous individuals. He now perceived that a new world was open to his view: and to use his own expressive language, he found himself in an ancient charnel-house, surrounded by a confused multitude of mangled skeletons of a great variety of unknown beings. To arrange each fragment in its proper place, and restore order to these heterogeneous materials, seemed at first a hopeless task: but a knowledge of the immutable laws by which the organization of animal existence is governed, soon enabled him to assign to each bone, and even fragment, its proper place in the skeleton; and the forms of beings hitherto unseen by mortal eye appeared before him. "I cannot," he exclaims, "express my delight in finding how the application of one principle was instantly followed by the most triumphant results. The essential character of a tooth and its relation to the skull being determined, all the other elements of the fabric immediately fell into their proper places; and the vertebra, ribs, bones of the legs, thigh, and feet, seemed to arrange themselves even without my bidding, and in the very manner I had predicted." The principles of the correlation of structure which his profound researches in comparative anatomy had enabled him to establish, conducted to these important results, and laid the foundation of that science which has since received the name of Palæontology.[107] The mode of induction adopted by this illustrious philosopher, has been the mighty instrument by which subsequent labourers in this department of science have so largely contributed to our knowledge of the ancient condition of the earth, and of the structure and economy of the tribes of beings which have successively dwelt upon it. The examination of the fossil teeth (in Plate LXXII. figs. 4-9) showed that the animals were herbivorous; and the crown of the tooth being composed of two or three simple crescents, as in certain pachydermata, proved that they differed from the ruminants, which have double crescents, and each four bands of enamel. The two principal genera first established were the _Palæotherium_ and _Anoplotherium_. The first approximates to the Tapirs in the number and disposition of the teeth; the second is remarkable in having no projecting canines, and in all the teeth forming a continued series, as in the human race. Remains of both these genera have been found in the eocene tertiary strata of the Isle of Wight,[108] and on the coast of Hampshire.
[Footnote 107: A concise exposition of the Cuvierian inductive philosophy will be found in Wonders of Geology, pp. 137-147.]
[Footnote 108: See my Geological Excursions round the Isle of Wight. For an account of the fossil animals of Paris, refer to Wonders of Geology, p. 254.]
X. Fossil Edentata. _Megatherium, and Megalonyx_. (Plates LXXII. and LXXIII.)--The remains of these and other allied forms of the extinct gigantic Edentata, which once inhabited South America, occur in immense quantities throughout the Pampas--those vast plains which present a sea of waving grass for 900 miles. These plains consist of alluvial loam and sand, containing fresh-water and marine shells of existing species; they were evidently once, like Lewes Levels, a gulf or arm of the sea. Since the publication of Mr. Parkinson's work, vast numbers of bones have been exhumed, and many most interesting specimens sent to England by Sir Woodbine Parish, and Charles Darwin, Esq., in whose charming "Journal of Researches into the Natural History and Geology of the Countries visited during the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle round the World," will be found many highly graphic notices of the discovery of these remains.[109] Mr. Darwin, under the head of _Bahia Blanca_,[110] describes the remains of no less than nine great quadrupeds found imbedded within the space of 200 square yards. They consisted of three heads and other bones of the _Megatherium_, of enormous dimensions; and bones of the _Megalonyx_. Of the _Scelidotherium_, an allied animal, Mr. Darwin obtained an almost perfect skeleton; it must have been as large as a rhinoceros; in the structure of the head, it approaches nearest the Cape ant-eater, in other respects it is related to the armadilloes. Remains of a different species of Mylodon, of another gigantic edental quadruped, and of a large animal with an osseous dermal coat in compartments, very like that of the Armadillo. Of this last, which has been named _Glyptodon_, there is a very fine specimen in the Hunterian Museum. Teeth and bones of an extinct species of horse, and of an unknown pachyderm, a huge beast with a long neck like the camel. Lastly the _Toxodon_ (so named from the remarkable curvature of the teeth); this is perhaps one of the strangest animals ever discovered. In size it equals the elephant or megatherium, but the structure of its teeth shows it to have been intimately related to the gnawers--the order which at the present day includes the smallest quadrupeds. In many details it approaches to the pachydermata; judging from the position of its eyes, it was probably aquatic, like the Dugong and Manatee, to which it is also allied.
[Footnote 109: Published by Mr. Murray, in one vol. 1845. The anatomical description of the fossil Edentata brought home by Mr. Darwin, by Professor Owen, will be found in the "Zoology of the Voyage of the Beagle."]
[Footnote 110: Mr. Darwin's Journal, chap. v. p. 81.]
The beds containing the above fossil remains, consist of stratified gravel and reddish mud, and stand only from fifteen to twenty feet above the level of high water; hence the elevation of the land has been small since the great quadrupeds wandered over the surrounding plains; and the external features of the country must then have been very nearly the same as now.
In another place, Mr. Darwin observes,--"The number of the remains of these large quadrupeds imbedded in the grand estuary deposit which forms the Pampas and covers the granitic rocks of Banda Oriental, must be extraordinarily great. I believe, a straight line drawn in any direction through the Pampas, would cut through some skeleton or bones. Besides those which I found during my short excursions, I heard of many others; and the origin of such names as, 'the stream of the animal,' 'the hill of the giant,' is obvious. At other times, I heard of the marvellous property of certain rivers, which had the power of changing small bones into large; or as some maintained, the bones themselves grew. As far as I am aware, not one of these animals perished, as was formerly supposed, in the marshes or muddy river-beds of the present land, but their bones have been exposed by the streams intersecting the subaqueous deposit, in which they were originally imbedded. We may conclude that the whole area of the Pampas is one wide sepulchre of these extinct gigantic quadrupeds."[111]
[Footnote 111: Mr. Darwin's Journal, p. 135. The reader interested in these extraordinary fossil remains should visit the British Museum, and the Hunterian Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in Lincoln's Inn Fields.]
XI. Flint.--_Animal Remains in siliceous nodules._--So many beautiful specimens of siliceous petrifactions--that is, animal and vegetable remains transmuted into silex or flint--are figured in the subjoined plates, that it may be useful to offer a few remarks on this subject.[112] In many instances the organic remains in chalk-flints are simply incrusted by the silex; such is the state of numerous sponges which are as it were invested by the flint, and have all their pores and tubes filled up by the same material, the original tissue appearing as a brown calcareous substance. In other examples, the sponge has been enveloped in a mass of liquid flint, and has subsequently perished and decomposed; in this manner have been formed those hollow nodules, which on being broken present a cavity containing only a little white powder, or some fragments of silicified sponge; in many instances the cavity is lined with quartz crystals, or mammillated chalcedony. Frequently but part of the zoophyte is permeated by the silex, and the other portion is in the state of a friable calcareous earth imbedded in the chalk. Sponges and other zoophytes often form the nuclei of the flint nodules; the original substance of the organic body being in general silicified, and the most delicate internal structure preserved. Shells, corals, and the minute cases of foraminifera, are often immersed as it were in pure flint, appearing as if preserved in a semi-transparent medium.
[Footnote 112: See Wonders of Geology, vol. i. pp. 74-105, for a general view of the process of petrifaction.]
But there are innumerable flint nodules in which no traces of spongeous tissue are apparent, and veins, dikes, and sheets of tabular flint, that are in a great measure free from organic remains; containing only such as may be supposed to have become imbedded in a stream of fluid silex that flowed over a sea-bottom. Wood perforated by lithodomi and silicified, is occasionally met with; and fuci or algæ are sometimes found, appearing as if floating in the liquid flint.
For the most part, the minute shells in the chalk and flint are filled with amorphous mineral matter; but in many examples, (as I have ascertained by direct experiment,) the soft parts of foraminifera remain in the shell.
XII. Foraminifera.--Plate LXII. contains figures of several species belonging to various genera of those minute fossil shells, the discoidal involute forms of which were once considered to belong to the Cephalopoda, and to be related to the Nautilus, Spirula, &c., but which are now grouped in one family, under the name of _Foraminifera_; a term derived from the foramina or perforations with which their shells are traversed, and which have relation to the peculiar organization of the animals.
Since microscopic observations have become so general, thanks to the genius and enthusiasm of Ehrenberg, these fossil bodies have acquired a degree of interest and importance, unsurpassed by more obvious organic remains. Whole mountain chains and extensive tracts of country are now known to be almost entirely composed of the aggregated shells of a few genera of these _microzoa_.[113] In other deposits their remains are associated with those of _Infusoria_,[114] (both animal and vegetable,) still more infinitesimal. As much error prevails among collectors as to the real nature of the fossil foraminifera, I am induced to annex the following remarks.[115]
[Footnote 113: A convenient term to express animal organisms that can only be distinctly examined by the aid of the microscope: strata in a great measure composed of such fossil remains may be distinguished as _microzoic_ deposits.]
[Footnote 114: This term was first employed to denote the various minute forms of animal organization that appear in vegetable infusions; as Rotifers, Monads, Vorticella, &c. But with these, numerous vegetable forms generally appear, as Gaillonella, Bacellaria, Navicula, &c.: these were formerly also regarded as animals, and were consequently comprised under the same general appellation.]
[Footnote 115: The best scientific account of these animals will be found in M. D'Orbigny's work on the "Foraminifères Fossiles du Bassin Tertiaire de Vienne, (Autriche)." Paris, 1846. 1 vol. 4to, with plates.]
The foraminifera are marine animals of low organization, and, with but few exceptions, extremely minute: in an ounce of sea-sand between three and four millions have been distinctly enumerated. When living, they are not aggregated, but always individually distinct; they are composed of a body (or vital mass) of a gelatinous consistence, which is either entire, and round, or divided into segments, placed either on a simple or alternate line, or coiled spirally, or involuted round an axis. This body is covered with an envelope or shell, which is generally testaceous, rarely cartilaginous, and is modelled on the segments, and follows all the modifications of form and contour of the body. From the extremity of the last segment, there issue, sometimes from one, sometimes from several openings of the shell, or through numerous pores or foramina, very elongated, slender, contractile, colourless filaments, more or less divided and ramified, serving for prehension, and capable of entirely investing the shell. The body varies in colour, but is always identical in individuals of the same species,--it is yellow, fawn-coloured, red, violet, blue, &c. Its consistence is variable; it is composed of minute globules, the aggregation of which determines the general tint. It is sometimes entire, round, and without segments, as in _Gromia_, _Orbulina_, &c., which represent, at all ages, the embryonic state of all the other genera. They increase, without doubt, by the entire circumference. When the body is divided by lobes or segments, the primary lobe, as in the permanent condition of the Gromia, is at first round or oval, according to the genus; once formed it never enlarges, but is enveloped externally by testaceous matter; it may be compared to a ball on which is applied a second larger one, then a third still larger, and so on during the life of the animal.
The annexed figure of the animal of _Nummulina_ (as given by MM. Joly and Leymerie) will serve to convey a general idea of the living Foraminifera.
The segments, as the body increases, are agglomerated in six different ways, and these modifications are the basis of M. D'Orbigny's classification. The discoidal forms, as the _Rotalia_, _Rosalina_, _Cristellaria_, &c. are involuted like the nautilus, and divided by septa or partitions, the different lobes of the body occupying contemporaneously every chamber, and being connected by a tube or canal that extends through the entire series. In the spiral forms, the _Textilaria_, &c. the same structure is apparent. These two groups are the most abundant in the cretaceous strata; many beds of the white chalk consist almost wholly of the aggregated shells of the Rosalinæ, Rotaliæ, and Textilariæ.[116] Whatever the form of the body, the filaments always consist of a colourless matter as transparent as glass; they elongate from the base to six times the diameter of the shell. They often divide and subdivide, so as to appear branched. Though alike in form in the different genera, they vary much in their position. In some they form a bundle which issues from a single opening, and is withdrawn into the same by contraction; in others the filaments project only through each of the pores in the shell which covers the last segment; in others they issue from both the large aperture and the foramina. In fine, these filaments or pseudopodia fulfil in the foraminifera the functions of the numerous tentacula in the Asteriadæ, or Star-fishes, serving as instruments of locomotion and attachment.
[Footnote 116: See Wonders of Geology, p. 299]
Neither organs of nutriment nor of reproduction have been detected. In the genera having one large aperture from which the filaments issue and retract, we can conceive nutriment to be absorbed by that opening; but this cannot be the case in the species which have the last cell closed up; in these the filaments issuing through the foramina are probably also organs of nutrition. M. D'Orbigny considers the Foraminifera as constituting a distinct class in zoology; less complicated than the Echinoderms and the Polypiaria in their internal organization, they have by their filaments the mode of locomotion of the first, and by their free, individual existence--not aggregated and immovably fixed--they are more advanced in the scale of being than the latter. To me they appear to be merely hydra-form polypes of the most simple structure, protected by shells;[117] those composed of different segments, I conceive to be a single aggregated individual, and not a successive series of beings.
[Footnote 117: An admirable paper on the "_Polystomella crispa_," by Mr. Williamson, of Manchester, (Trans. Micros. Society of London, vol. ii.) should be consulted on this question.]
The white chalk is well known to be largely composed of a few kinds of foraminifera, but the occurrence of the soft bodies of these animalcules in a fossil state was first discovered by me, in 1845, in chalk-flints, and was announced in a paper, read before the Geological Society, entitled, "_Notes of a Microscopical Examination of Chalk and Flint_."[118] This statement was regarded by some eminent palæontologists as so "startling and unsatisfactory," that I resumed the investigation, and communicated the result to the Royal Society, in a memoir "_On the Fossil Remains of the Soft Parts of Foraminifera discovered in the Chalk and Flint of the South-East of England_;"[119] and with the kind assistance of that able chemist and microscopist, Mr. Henry Deane, of Clapham Common, I obtained, by immersing chalk in dilute hydrochloric acid, and mounting the residue in Canada balsam, several specimens of the entire integuments of the bodies of Rotaliæ, as distinct as if recent! This fact is now admitted; and the experiment has been successfully repeated in India, by Mr. Carter, on the limestones of that country;[120] and in America, by Dr. Bailey, &c.[121] In some limestone recently collected by my eldest son, Mr. Walter Mantell, in the Middle Island of New Zealand, and which, like our cretaceous strata, is almost entirely made up of foraminifera, I have detected the soft parts of the bodies of Rotaliæ in the cells of the fossil shells, as distinctly as in the chalk of England; and two of the species appear to be identical with European forms.
[Footnote 118: These "Notes" were withdrawn, and published in the Annals of Natural History for August, 1845.]
[Footnote 119: Published in Philos. Trans. Part iv. for 1846.]
[Footnote 120: "On the existence of Beds of Foraminifera, recent and fossil, on the South-East of Arabia," by H. J. Carter, Esq. Assistant Surgeon, Bombay. Proceedings of the Bombay Asiatic Society, 1848.]
[Footnote 121: A remarkable foraminiferous deposit of chalk detritus occurs at Charing, in Kent, and was first examined and described by William Harris, Esq.; it contains immense numbers of many kinds of foraminifera, and of the cases or shells of entomostraca, of the genus Cytherina, with spicules of sponges, &c.--See Wonders of Geology, vol. 1. p. 324.]
M. D'Orbigny gives the following summary of the distribution of the known fossil species of Foraminifera:--
There are 228 species in the Tertiary deposits of Vienna alone, of which twenty-seven species are known living in the Adriatic and the Mediterranean.
Foraminifera are unknown in the Silurian and Devonian formations.
One species only is known in the Carboniferous system of Russia, the _Fusulina cylindrica_.
Jurassic or Oolitic formation Genera 5 Species 20 Cretaceous " 34 " 280 Tertiary " 56 " 450 Living in the present seas " 68 " 1,000
Of these last, 575 species inhabit tropical seas, 350 the seas of temperate, and 75 the seas of cold climates.
XIII. Fossil Elk of Ireland, or _Cervus megaloceros_. (Plate LXXI.)--The shell-marls of Ireland contain in abundance the bones of an animal, which like the Dodo, was once contemporary with the human species, but has long been extinct: the last individuals of the race were, in all probability, exterminated by the early Celtic tribes. The remains of this noble creature generally occur in the deposits of marl that underlie the peat-bogs, which are apparently, like those of Scotland, the sites of ancient lakes or bays. In Curragh immense quantities of these bones lie within a small area; the skeletons appear to be entire, and are found with the skull elevated, and the antlers thrown back on the shoulders, as if a small herd of these Elks had sought refuge in the marshes, and had been engulfed in the morass, in the same manner as the Mastodons of America. (See description of Plate LXXIV., ante, p. 167.)
This creature far exceeded in magnitude any living species of elk or deer. The skeleton is upwards often feet in height to the top of the skull, and the antlers are from ten to fourteen feet from one extremity to the other. The fine perfect skeletons in the British Museum, College of Surgeons, and in the Museum at Edinburgh, render a particular description unnecessary. The bones are generally well preserved, of a dark brown colour, with patches of blue phosphate of iron. In some instances they are in so fresh a condition, that the hollows of the long bones contain marrow having the appearance of fresh suet. Remains of this majestic animal have been found collocated with ancient sepulchral urns, stone implements, and rude canoes, in such manner, as to leave no doubt that this now extinct deer was coeval with the early human inhabitants of these Islands. Its bones and antlers have been found at Walton, in Essex, associated with the remains of the Mammoth, or fossil elephant.[122]
[Footnote 122: Wonders of Geology, p. 134.]
XIV. Fossil Infusoria--_Infusorial Earths_.--In the note on Foraminifera some account is given of various rocks composed of the fossil remains of those minute animals; but the durable relics of the yet more infinitesimal organisms designated by the terms _Infusoria_, or _Infusorial animalcules_, form deposits of equal interest and importance. Strata of great extent and thickness are wholly, or in great part, made up of innumerable layers, consisting of the aggregated siliceous cases or shields of Infusoria: and similar structures are found to be the chief constituents of the white earthy deposits of lakes, rivers, and basins of brackish water, in every part of the world.
Slowly, imperceptibly, but incessantly, are the vital energies of the feeblest and minutest animal and vegetable existences separating from the element in which they live, the most enduring of mineral substances, silex--fabricating it into structures of the most exquisite forms and sculpturing, and thus adding to the accumulations of countless ages, which make up the sedimentary strata of the crust of the globe.
In the "Medals of Creation"[123] will be found a summary of what was then known as to the formation and composition of many tertiary deposits which the indefatigable Ehrenberg, Dr. Bailey, and other eminent observers, had carefully investigated and described. The five years that have since elapsed have been fruitful in results of the most important and interesting character; from every quarter of the world, from the loftiest mountain peaks, and from the deepest recesses of the ocean which the plummet can reach, from the ashes of volcanoes and from the snow of the glaciers, the durable remains of Infusoria have been obtained. That excellent scientific periodical, Silliman's American Journal, contains numerous interesting communications on this subject from the eminent chemical professor of the Military College at West Point, Dr. J. W. Bailey; and the labours of Mr. Bowerbank, Williamson, and other active members of the Microscopical Society of London, have yielded much interesting information on the infusorial deposits of our own country.
[Footnote 123: Medals of Creation, vol. i. p. 211.]
The present note will be restricted to remarks on the nature of the organisms which enter so largely into the composition of certain tertiary deposits; since the opinion once entertained of the animal nature of many infusoria, now regarded as true vegetables, materially affects the geological conclusions respecting the persistence of certain species of organisms through long periods of time, during which the mollusca, zoophytes, &c. underwent repeated mutations both in the species and genera. Thus, for example, the _polierschiefer_, or polishing-slate of Bilin, and the berghmehl of Tuscany, are described by Ehrenberg as masses of the siliceous shells of animalcules of such extreme minuteness, that a cubic inch of the stone contains upwards of forty millions; the infusorial earth of Richmond, in Virginia, in like manner, is stated to be made up of the siliceous skeletons of animalcules of infinitesimal minuteness. But later investigations have (I conceive) satisfactorily established, that the greater part of these fossil organisms belongs to the vegetable and not to the animal kingdom.[124] The whole of the figures in Plate IV. of the "Medals of Creation," described as living Infusoria, on the authority of Ehrenberg, are undoubted vegetables, belonging to the great botanical groups called _Diatomaceæ_ (from the angular segments into which they separate by partial division), and _Desmidiaceæ_.[125] The entire family of _Bacillaria_ belongs to this group. These simplest forms of vegetable structures abound in every lake or stream of fresh and brackish water, in every pool, or bay, and throughout the ocean, from the equator to the poles; they secrete siliceous envelopes, which present an endless variety of form and structure, and after the death and decomposition of the perishable tissues of the plants, remain as perfectly transparent colourless shields of pure silica; such are the _Gaillonellæ_, _Euastra_, _Closteria_, _Naviculæ_, _Synhedræ_, _Podospheniæ_, _Xanthidia_, &c., which constitute so large a proportion of the infusorial earths described by Ehrenberg and other authors.[126]
[Footnote 124: In my little work on Recent Infusoria, entitled "Thoughts on Animalcules, or a Glimpse of the Invisible World revealed by the Microscope," I have expressed my conviction of the vegetable nature of these organisms, as a reason for omitting figures and descriptions of any of the species in a work on living fresh-water animalcules.]
[Footnote 125: The name Diatomaceæ is restricted by M. Brébisson to those species which have a siliceous envelope, or cuticle; and that of _Desmidiæ_ to those which are not siliceous, but reducible by heat to carbon.]
[Footnote 126: The reader interested in this subject should consult the beautiful work of Mr. Hassall on the Desmidiaceæ, published by Messrs. Reeve & Benham.]
The extent of this infinitesimal flora throughout regions where no other forms of vegetation are known, is strikingly demonstrated by the observations of the eminent botanist and traveller. Dr. Hooker, in his account of the Antarctic regions.
"Everywhere," he states, "the waters and the ice alike abound in these microscopic vegetables. Though too small to be visible to the unassisted eye, their aggregated masses stained the iceberg and pack-ice wherever they were washed by the sea, and imparted a pale ochreous colour to the ice. From the south of the belt of ice which encircles the globe, to the highest latitudes reached by man, this vegetation is everywhere conspicuous, from the contrast between its colour and that of the white snow and ice in which it is imbedded. In the eightieth degree of south latitude all the surface ice carried along by currents, and the sides of every berg, and the base of the great Victoria barrier itself--a perpendicular wall of ice, from one to two hundred feet above the sea-level--were tinged brown from this cause, as if the waters were charged with oxide of iron. The majority of these plants consist of simple vegetable cells, enclosed in indestructible silex (as other _Algæ_ are in carbonate of lime); and it is obvious that the death of such multitudes must form sedimentary deposits of immense extent.
"The universal existence of such an invisible vegetation as that of the Antarctic ocean, is u truly wonderful fact, and the more so, from its being unaccompanied by plants of a high order. This ocean swarms with mollusca, and entomostracous crustaceans, small whales, and porpoises; and the sea with penguins and seals, and the air with birds: the animal kingdom is everywhere present, the larger creatures preying on the smaller, and these again on those more minute; all living nature seems to be carnivorous. This microscopic vegetation is the sole nutrition of the herbivorous animals; and it may likewise serve to purify the atmosphere, and thus execute in the antarctic latitudes the office of the trees and grasses of the temperate regions, and the broad foliage of the palms of the tropics."[127]
[Footnote 127: From Dr. Hooker's account of the botany of the South Polar regions in Sir J. Ross's Voyages of Discovery.]
Dr. Hooker also observes, that the siliceous cases of the same kind of Diatomaceæ now living in the waters of the South Polar Ocean, have contributed in past ages to the formation of European strata; for the tripoli and the phonolite stones of the Rhine contain the siliceous shields of identical species. Such are the comments of one of our most eminent botanists on the phenomena under review. The reader will probably ask,--What, then, are the essential characters which separate the animal from the vegetable kingdom? To this question it is impossible to give a satisfactory reply: perhaps the only distinction that will be generally admitted by zoologists and botanists is the following:--_animals require organic substances for their support; vegetables derive their sustenance from inorganic matter_.
The facts thus cursorily reviewed throw much doubt on many of M. Ehrenberg's statements as to the identity of species of animalcules now living, with those whose remains occur in the eocene, and in the secondary strata. The so-called _Xanthidia_ of the chalk, are certainly altogether distinct from the recent diatomæ to which the name was first applied; the chalk organisms are probably the gemmules of sponges or other zoophytes.[128]
[Footnote 128: It would be convenient to distinguish these fossils by another name, and thus avoid the perpetuation of the error; I would propose that of _Spiniferites_, in allusion to the numerous spines with which all the species are beset.]
Infusorial earths may therefore be composed either of microscopic vegetable or animal remains, or of both. The brackish and fresh-water deposits I have examined are siliceous and almost wholly diatomaceous: the marine calcareous strata composed of microscopic organisms, consist chiefly of various kinds of foraminifera, a large proportion belonging to the polythalamia, or chambered shells. I am not certain as to the animal or vegetable nature of some of the beautiful siliceous disks (_Coscinodisci_, _Arachnoidisci_, _Actinocyclus_, &c.) so abundant in the Richmond, Barbadoes, and Bermuda infusorial earths, and which occur in so splendid a state in the Guano deposits of Ichaboe.
With the corrections which the above remarks will enable the reader to make, I would refer to the account of Fossil Infusoria in the Medals of Creation, and Wonders of Geology. [129]
[Footnote 129: See also "Thoughts on Animalcules."]
XV. The Mosasaurus, or _Fossil Reptile of Maestricht_. (Plate LXX.) The occasional discovery of bones and teeth of an unknown animal in the limestone of St. Peter's Mountain, near Maestricht, and the innumerable shells, corals, teeth of fishes, claws of crabs, echini, and other organic remains, had long since attracted the attention of naturalists, and rendered these quarries celebrated throughout Europe. In 1770, M. Hoffman, the surgeon of the Fort, who had for some years been assiduously collecting the fossils of this locality, had the good fortune to discover a specimen which has conferred an enduring celebrity on his name. Some workmen, on blasting the rock in one of the caverns of the interior of the mountain, perceived to their astonishment the jaws of a large animal attached to the roof of the chasm. The discovery was immediately made known to M. Hoffman, who repaired to the spot, and for weeks presided over the arduous task of separating the mass of stone containing these remains from the surrounding rock. His labours were rewarded by the successful extrication of the specimen, which he conveyed in triumph to his house. This extraordinary discovery soon became the subject of general conversation, and upon reaching the ears of the Canon of the cathedral which stands on the mountain, excited in that functionary a determination to claim the fossil, in right of being lord of the manor; and he unfortunately succeeded, after a long and harassing lawsuit, in obtaining this precious relic. It remained for years in his possession, and Hoffman died without regaining his treasure, or receiving any compensation. At length the French revolution broke out, and the armies of the republic advanced to the gates of Maestricht. The town was bombarded; but at the suggestion of the committee of savans who accompanied the French troops to select their share of plunder, the artillery was not suffered to bombard that part of the city in which the celebrated fossil was known to be preserved. In the mean time, the Canon of St. Peter's, shrewdly suspecting the reason why such peculiar favour was shown to his residence, removed the specimen, and concealed it in a vault; but when the city was taken, the French authorities compelled him to give up his ill-gotten prize, which was immediately transmitted to the Jardin des Plantes, at Paris, where it still forms one of the most striking objects in that magnificent collection.[130]
[Footnote 130: Faujus St. Fond, in whose beautiful work on the fossils of St. Peter's Mountain the above account is given, remarks with much sang froid, "La _justice_, quoique tardive, arrive enfin avec le tems!" The reader will probably think that although the Canon was justly despoiled of his ill-gotten treasure, the French _savans_ were a very equivocal personification of _Justice_!]
The beautiful model of this most interesting fossil in the British Museum, was presented to me by Baron Cuvier. It is four and a half feet long, and two and a half wide; it consists of the jaws, with teeth, palatal bones, and the tympanic bone, or _os quadratum_, a bone possessed by reptiles, as well as birds, and in which the auditory cells are contained. There are likewise some fine portions of jaws, with teeth, in the British Museum, presented by Camper. The original animal was probably a terrestrial reptile, holding an intermediate place between the Monitors and Iguanas. It was about twenty-five feet long.
I discovered, many years since (1820), some vertebræ in the chalk near Lewes, which closely resemble the corresponding bones of the Mosasaurus, and in all probability belong to another species. In the cretaceous strata of New Jersey, Dr. Harlan found and described, and my friend. Dr. Morton, of Philadelphia, sent me, in 1834, teeth which cannot be distinguished from those of Maestricht. Vertebræ, and other bones, have since been obtained from the same deposits by Professor Rogers, and described by Professor Owen in the Geological Journal.
XVI. Fossil Reptiles. Although when Mr. Parkinson's work was published many fossil bones and teeth of reptiles had been discovered in various parts of England, yet the abundance and variety, and the extraordinary modification of form and structure of this class of vertebrated animals, which prevailed throughout the secondary geological formations, were not for a moment suspected. The few examples of the remains of fossil reptiles described by Mr. Parkinson, serve to mark the degree of knowledge which then existed respecting a department of palæontology that rapidly acquired an importance and interest unsurpassed by any other branch of fossil osteology.
The announcement of the founder of palæontology,[131] that there was a period when the lakes and rivers of our planet were peopled by reptiles, and cold-blooded oviparous quadrupeds of appalling magnitude were the principal inhabitants of the dry land; when the seas swarmed with saurians, exclusively adapted for a marine existence, and the regions of the atmosphere were traversed by winged lizards instead of birds; was an enunciation so novel and startling, as to require all the prestige of the name of Cuvier, to obtain for it any degree of attention and credence, even with those who were sufficiently enlightened to admit, that a universal deluge would not account for the physical mutations which the surface of the earth and its inhabitants had, in the lapse of innumerable ages, undergone.
[Footnote 131: In the "Ossemens Fossiles;" tom. v. Reptiles Fossiles.]
Subsequent discoveries have established the truth of this proposition to an extent beyond what even its promulgator could have surmised; and the "_Age of Reptiles_" is now admitted into the category of established facts.
During the incalculable ages which the formation of the various systems of secondary strata must have comprised, we find no evidence in the fossils hitherto observed, of the existence of birds and mammalia, as the characteristic types of the faunas of the dry land. On the contrary, throughout the immense accumulations of the spoils of the ancient islands and continents, amidst innumerable relics of reptiles of various orders and genera, a few jaws and bones of two or three kinds of extremely small marsupials, and the bones of a species of wader, are the sole indications of the presence of the two grand classes of Aves and Mammalia, which now constitute the chief features of the terrestrial zoology of almost all countries.
The earliest indications of air-breathing vertebrata in the ancient secondary formations are those of small saurian reptiles in the carboniferous strata; a few vestiges occur in the succeeding group, the Permian. In the next epoch, the Triassic, colossal Batrachians (_Labyrinthodonts_) appear; and on some of the strata of this formation are the footmarks of numerous bipeds, presumed to be those of birds; but at present the evidence of the bones of the animals that made those imprints is required to establish the hypothesis.
In the succeeding eras, the Lias, Oolite, Wealden, and Cretaceous, swarms of reptiles of numerous genera and species everywhere prevail; reptiles fitted to fly through the air, to roam over the land, to inhabit the lakes, rivers, and seas; and yet not one identical with any existing forms! These beings gradually decline in numbers and species as we approach the close of the secondary periods, and are immediately succeeded in the eocene epoch, by as great a preponderance of warm-blooded vertebrata--birds and mammalia--as exists at the present time; and an equal decadence in the class of reptiles. With the Cretaceous Formation the "Age of Reptiles" may be said to terminate.
XVII.--Fossil Reptiles of the Wealden. _The Iguanodon._ The fluviatile deposits (termed _Wealden_), which in the south-east of England, and in the north of Germany, are intercalated between the oolitic and cretaceous formations, abound in the bones of terrestrial, fresh-water, and marine reptiles, comprising some of the most colossal land-saurians which have hitherto been brought to light. These remains belong to various genera of Chelonians, Saurians, and Crocodilians; and with these are associated those of flying lizards (_Pterodactyles_), Plesiosauri, gigantic whale-like reptiles (_Cetiosauri_), and of other oviparous quadrupeds of unknown species and genera.
The occurrence of fossils of this nature in the strata forming the districts denominated the Wealds of Sussex and Kent, was first brought under the notice of geologists in 1822, in my work on the "Fossils of the South Downs," in which the remains of several unknown reptiles were described; and among them the teeth and bones of that extraordinary herbivorous lizard, the _Iguanodon_, on which I am induced to offer a few observations in this place; the recent discovery of some previously undetermined parts of the skeleton, having materially elucidated the structure and economy of the original.[132]
[Footnote 132: The following is the description of the specimens first discovered, given in the "Fossils of the South Downs; or, Illustrations of the Geology of Sussex," 1 vol. 4to. 1822: "Incisors and molar teeth evidently belonging to the same species of animal: they differ from any previously known; the masticating surface is perfectly smooth and rather depressed in the centre; these teeth consist of the crown only, and are quite solid. An incisor tooth 1.3 inch long Is slightly bowed and smooth on its inner surface; but it has externally a ridge which extends longitudinally down the front. Its sides are angular and the edges finely crenated." From the resemblance of these teeth in their general form to those of the Iguana, a common land lizard in the West Indies, I subsequently proposed the name of _Iguanodon_ (implying an animal having teeth like the Iguana) for the fossil reptile. The teeth of an Iguana four or five feet long are not larger than those of a mouse; the Iguanodon's teeth are as large as the incisors of the rhinoceros. The Iguana's teeth, when used, are chipped off at the points, no existing reptile being capable of performing mastication; the teeth of the Iguanodon, on the contrary, are ground down like the worn molars of herbivorous mammalia, as I pointed out in my first memoir in the Philos. Trans. 1825.]
Since the first announcement of the discovery of the remains of the Iguanodon, vast quantities of bones belonging to a great number of individuals of all ages have been collected; but until a few years since, not a vestige of the jaws had been observed, notwithstanding the most diligent research. In the early part of the year 1848, I was surprised and highly gratified by receiving from Capt. Lambart Brickenden (at that time a personal stranger to me), who then resided at Warminglid, near Cuckfield, in Sussex, the greater part of the right side (or _ramus_) of the lower jaw, with several successional teeth in their natural position, of an adult Iguanodon.[133] See p. 202.
[Footnote 133: This beautiful and most instructive specimen is now in my possession; it is figured of the natural size in Philos. Trans.