ABSTRACTS 



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 this issue. 



GEOLOGY. — The fauna of the Baiesville sandstone of northern Arkansas. 

 G. H. GiRTY. U. S. Geol. Survey Bull. 593. Pp. 170, with 

 11 plates. 1915. 



This bulletin is one of a series designed to describe and illustrate the 

 succession of upper Mississippian faunas in the rocks of northern 

 Arkansas, which differs surprisingly from the faunal succession of the 

 typical Mississippian series in areas not far removed. The chfferences 

 are so great that an exact correlation of the two series can not yet be 

 made either faunally, lithologically, or stratigraphically. The Bates- 

 ville sandstone overlies the Moorefisld shale, whose fauna has been 

 described in a previous bulletin. Sandstone fossils are rarely well 

 preserved and rarely yield satisfactory results in the way of accurate 

 generic and specific discrimination. It was therefore the fact of its 

 occurrence in this series of formations rather than any intrinsic interes*: 

 that led to the investigation of the fauna of the Batesville sandstone. 

 The Batesville fauna had already been described by Professor Wellei-, 

 whose report was based on collections from Batesville alone. The 

 fossils described in Bulletin 593 include collections not only from the 

 Batesville region but from Marshall as well. Weller's report recognized 

 only about 30 species, whereas this one describes about 128, most of 

 which are therefore new to the Batesville fauna as previously known, 

 and some of Avhich are new to science. 



The fauna of the Batesville sandstone^ was found to differ widely 

 from that of the underlying Moorefield shale and to be of uppsr Missis- 

 sippian age, to which, indeed, it had been generally assigned. Its cor- 

 relation is discussed at some length, but for the reason set down above 

 no definite conclusion is reached as to its exact position in the typical 

 upper Mississippian sections of Missouri and Illinois. G. H. G. 



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