Page:Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 34.djvu/28

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
4
R. ETHERIDGE, JUN., ON LOWER-CARBONIFEROUS INVERTEBRATA.

of this variety of Spirorbis carbonarius was again reproduced by Dr. W. Rhind in a little work entitled 'Excursions illustrative of the Geology and Xatural History of the Environs of Edinburgh'[1]. The first collective account of the Lower-Carboniferous fossils, as previously stated, was that given by Mr. Salter in the Appendix to the Memoir on the Geology of Edinburgh. The list of Invertebrata comprised exactly one dozen species, of which two were Annelids, viz. Spirorbis carbonarius, Murch., and Sp. helicteres, Salter, both obtained by Mr. R. Gibbs in the Clubbidean Limestone, at the extreme base, according to Prof. Geikie, of the Cement-stone group. Sp. helicteres was originally described by Mr. Salter from specimens obtained by the Rev. T. Brown, M.A., near Fifeness, and figured and described in the latter gentleman's paper "On the Mountain Limestone and Lower Carboniferous Rocks of the Fifeshire Coast"[2].

Mr. Salter remarked on the unattached habit of this worm, and stated that it occurs in distinct beds, hundreds grouped together, yet without ostensible attachment to any other object than its own species. The same remark will apply to its condition at Clubbidean. In May 1870 Mr. C. W. Peach communicated a paper to the Edinburgh Geological Society "On the Discovery of Spirorbis carbonarius (Murchison) in the Limestone of Burdiehouse, &c."[3]. The same species was again found by Mr. J. Henderson on striated stems, like Catamites, from a black shale in Forrest Road, Edinburgh[4].

In a short article entitled "Palæontological Notes," contributed to the 'Geological Magazine' in July last (1877), I called attention to a Spirorbis occurring in a band of limestone at the Oakbank Oil Works, near Mid Calder, which appears to be closely allied to S. siluricus, Eichw.

Crustacea.—We are again indebted to Dr. Hibbert for the first notice of Ostracoda from this series of rocks. He named and figured Cypris scoto-burdigalensis and Daphnoidea, sp., from the Burdiehouse Limestone[5]. The first of these has since been placed in the genus Leperditia by Prof. T. Rupert Jones, F.R.S.; and the second has been named by him D. Hibberti. Dr. William Rhind also reproduced the original figures of these species[6]; and Mr. Salter recorded further localities where they might be obtained[7]. A very interesting paper was published by Dr. R. Paterson in the year 1837, "On the Fossil Organic Remains found in the Coal Formation at Wardie, near Newhaven"[8]. After describing the plants, Dr. Paterson mentions the Entomostraca, which, he says, are to be referred "to the genera Cypris and Daphnoidea." He adds, on another page, "These microscopic crustaceous remains . . . . . are

  1. 12mo, 1836, p. 35.
  2. Trans. R. Soc. Edinb. xxii. p. 401.
  3. Trans. Geol. Soc. Edinb. 1871, ii. pt. 1, p. 82.
  4. "On Fossils found in the Rocks underlying the South Side of Edinburgh," Trans. Geol. Soc. Edinb. 1871, ii. pt. 1, p. 138.
  5. Hibbert, loc. cit. pp. 179, 180.
  6. Excursions. 1836, p. 35.
  7. Memoir 32, p. 145.
  8. Edinb. New Phil. Journ. 1837, xxiii. pp. 146–155.