Page:VCH Suffolk 1.djvu/79

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PALAEONTOLOGY the Red Crag have been described as a race of the whiting with the name of G. merlangus suffblcensis ; while yet another form, typically from the Coralline Crag of Gedgrave, has been regarded as indicating an extinct species (G. pseudoeglifinus) nearly allied to the haddock. Fish spines in the York Museum indicate the occurrence of a sturgeon [Acipenser) in the Red Crag ; but whether the remains are contempora- neous or washed out of an older deposit does not appear to be ascer- tained. The occurrence of species of dog-fishes and sharks in the Suffolk Crag is indicated by numerous remains. Among these two teeth from the Red Crag of Little Bealings near Woodbridge are regarded as belong- ing to a species nearly related to the common tope [Galeus canis). Certain spines from the Red Crag of Woodbridge and elsewhere were shown by Sir W. H. Flower to be indistinguishable from those with which the ' claspers ' of the gigantic basking-shark [Cetorhinus maximus) of modern seas are armed. The largest member of the shark tribe now living, the widely distributed Rondeleti's shark {Carcharodon rondektii) is represented by teeth from the Red Crag of Sutton and elsewhere and the Coralline Crag of Orford. Still larger teeth of the same type from the Red Crag of Woodbridge, Felixstow and other places in the county are assigned to the extinct C. megalodon, whose remains are met with in later Tertiary strata almost all over the world. Large teeth similar to these fossil specimens were dredged during the Challenger expedition from the depths of the Pacific in such a condition as to lead to the belief that the species was still living at a comparatively recent epoch. Rondeleti's shark is known to attain a length of 40 feet, but the fossil teeth (some of which measure 4 inches across and 5 in height) must indicate a fish half as large again. Shark teeth from the Red Crag nodule bed belonging to forms allied to the porbeagle have been referred to the species known as Oxyrhina hastalis, Odontaspis elegans and O. con- tortidens. With regard to teeth of the second form Mr. E. T. Newton writes as follows : ' Numerous examples from the Red Crag nodule bed are in the Museum of Practical Geology ; some of them are probably derived from older beds, being much rolled and worn ; but many of them are beautifully perfect, with the cutting edge quite sharp, and these it is thought must be of a Red Crag age.' Nearly similar remarks will apply to those of the third species. Very characteristic of the Crag are the teeth of a large species of comb-toothed shark, which have been identified by Dr. Smith Woodward with Notidanus gigas, a species typically from the Pliocene strata of Tuscany. According to Mr. Newton remains of this species have been found in the nodule bed of the Red Crag at Woodbridge, Butley, Felixstow and other localities in the county. Remains of eagle-rays of the genera Myliobatis and Mtobatis are not uncommon in the Red Crag of the county ; but the majority of these, as noticed below, are evidently derived from Eocene strata ; the name M. tumidens has however been applied to a species typified by Red Crag 43