Page:Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 33.djvu/72

4. On the Echinodermata of the Australian Cainozoic (Tertiary) Deposits. By P. Martin Duncan, M.B. Lond., F.R.S., Pres. Geol. Soc, Professor of Geology in King's College, London. (Read May 10, 1876.)

[Plates III. & IV.]

Contents.

I. Introduction.
II. List of Species and their Localities.
III. Description of the new Species.
IV. List of the Fossil and Recent Genera.

V. Lists of Specific Alliances.
VI. Remarks on the Species.
VII. Conclusions.

I. Introduction.

When the Cainozoic or so-called Tertiary deposits of Australia were found to be fossiliferous in some parts, great interest was excited respecting the possibility of the Echini being able to afford satisfactory evidence regarding the geological age of the strata in relation to the European types. It was hoped that the fossils of this great group would present some of the anomalies which characterize almost every class of organism found in the great distributional province; and it was thought to be probable that relics of very ancient forms would be discovered. But the number of species of Echini which were found in the marine deposits beneath the older basalt was small; and at the commencement of their study the amount of knowledge of the living Echinodermal fauna of the coasts and neighbouring seas was not great; consequently disappointment ensued. Year by year more specimens of the fossil Echini have been discovered, and careful collecting has produced many with their ornamentation wonderfully preserved; and, contemporaneously, the labours of Gray, Agassiz, and others, increased our knowledge of the recent Australian fauna.

Of necessity, therefore, the literature of the fossil Echini of Australia is scanty; and those palæontologists who have contributed to it have only paid attention to the relation of the forms to those of other geological ages, and neglected to consider the affinities with the existing fauna.

The principal contribution to the Echini of the Australian Tertiaries is that of Laube, "Ueber einige fossile Echiniden von den Murray cliffs in Süd-Australien," in the 'Sitzungsberichte der mathematisch-naturwissenschaftlichen Classe der kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Wien,' 1869, p. 183. He described several species new to science, and established two new genera. The species noticed were Psammechinus Woodsi, Catopygus elegans, Echinolampas ovulum, Micraster brevistella, Eupatagus Wrighti, E. murrayensis and Hemipatagus Forbesi; and the new genera were Paradoxechinus, species P. novus, and Monostychia, species M. australis.