Page:VCH Norfolk 1.djvu/65

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PALEONTOLOGY white whale or beluga {Delphinapterus leucas), which is likewise a northern species, the common dolphin {Delphinus delphis), probably the bottle-nosed dolphin {Tursiops tursio), and the porpoise {Phoccena communis) . The list of birds, reptiles, and amphibians from the Forest Bed is but small, and includes none but living species. These are the eagle- owl {Bubo ignavus), the cormorant {Phalacrocorax carbo), a goose [Anser), the shoveler [Spatula clypeata)^ the water-snake {Tropidonotus natrix), the viper (Vipera berus), the common frog {Rana temporaria), perhaps the edible frog {R. esculenta), the toad {Bufo vulgaris), and the newt {Molge cristata) . The fishes include the perch (Perca fiuviatilis), probably the ruffe [Acerina vulgaris), the extinct Platax woodivardi, the tunny [Thynnus vulgaris), the plaice [Plates sa vulgaris), the cod {Gadus morrhua), probably the barbel (Barbus vulgaris), the roach [Leuciscus rutilis), the chub {L. cephalus), the rudd (L. erythrophthalmus), the tench {Tinea vulgaris), the bream {Abramis brama), the pike {Esox lucius), and the sturgeon {Acipenser sturio)^ The land and freshwater shells of the Forest Bed belong to existing species, and include the common pond-mussel {Anodonta cygnea), the painter's mussel {Unio pictorum), Pisidium amnicum, Corbicula Jiuminalis, and species of Helix, Planorbis, Valvata, etc. The marine molluscs, on the other hand, are mostly of an Arctic type, and comprise My a truncata, Tellina balthica, Cardium edule (cockle), Leda myalis, Astarte borealis, etc. In addition to the numerous stumps of trees from which the formation derives its name, plant remains occur commonly in one par- ticular horizon of the Forest Bed ; the most interesting being the water- chestnut {Trapa nutans), a species now quite unknown in a living state in Britain. The vertebrates of the Norwich and Weybourn Crags are much less numerous than those of the Forest Bed, and, as might be expected, include a larger percentage of extinct types. Among the mammalian remains a tooth from the Norwich Crag at Bramerton, preserved in the Norwich Museum, is believed to indicate an extinct otter, for which the name Lutra reevei has been suggested. A thigh-bone (femur) from the Chillesford beds, in the same museum, is referable to the Crag walrus {Odobcenus huxleyi) ; and there are indications of a seal. Teeth of some kind of ox are occasionally met with in the Norwich Crag, which has also yielded the remains of an extinct gazelle {Gazella anglica). Antlers from the same deposit have been assigned to the Arde deer {Anoglochis ardeus), a species typically occurring in the Pliocene of France ; and others have been regarded as identical with that race of the giant Irish

  • For the vertebrate fossils from the Forest Bed the reader should consult The Vertebrata

of the Forest-bed Series of Norfolk and Suffolk (1882) and The Fertebrata of the Pliocene Deposits of Britain, both by E. T. Newton, and published by the Geological Survey. For a revision of the deer see The Deer of all Lands (1898), by the present writer, and a paper by Mr. C. Harmer on Cervus belgrandi, published in the Transactions of the Zoological Society for 1899. 35