Dr. T. Wright on the Palceontology of tlie Isle of Wight. 87 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE III. 



Fig. 1. Vesicle of Campanularia Syringa. ^vii iifodfi feiix&Juoo aloifeiiv 



— 2. The same in an earlier stage. ^ 



— 3. The same, highly magnified, to show the details of structure. 



— 4. " Compound vesicle " of Sertularia argentea from Sir J. G. Dalyell. 



— 5 a, Medusoid of Campanularia volubilis. b. Two of the tentacles 



and the intermediate tubercles, c. A tentacle and its bulb. 

 •—6; Laomedea laceruta (highly magnified),' '«; The same in the young 

 'ill r state. ^ii ot h' 



IX. — Contributions to the Palceontology of the Isle of Wight. 



By Thomas Wright, M.B. &c.* >"* ' 



It has been supposed that the tertiary beds of England/ when 

 compared with those of the continent of Europe, are deficient in 

 mammalian remains ; this opinion, like many other hasty gene- 

 ralizations, if it be not entirely fallacious, requires modification. 

 The valuable series of mammalian remains obtained from time 

 to time from the lacustrine strata of Kyson, Hordwell, and the 

 Isle of Wight, lead us to believe that if similar facilities existed 

 in these localities for working the beds from whence mammalian 

 bones and teeth are obtained, as is the case in the neighbour- 

 hood of Paris, the richness of the English tertiaries in these re- 

 mains would no longer be a doubtful question. We have been 

 led to this conclusion from facts which have come under our 

 observation during the two consecutive summers we were en- 

 gaged in drawing up a description of the coast sections of Hamp- 

 shire and the Isle of Wight, and which have already appeared in 

 the pages of this Journal. Until last summer no remains of the 

 new genus Dichodon had been found, except in one spot in the 

 Hordwell section, when T had the good fortune to discover, near 

 Alum Point, Isle of Wight, a portion of the lower jaw of this 

 singular genus with the true molars " in situ " in beautiful 

 preservation. This jaw fortunately supplies some points in the 

 anatomy of this rare mammal, which were absent in the only 

 specimen hitherto found, and which it is the object of this note 

 to furnish. 



Dichodon cuspidatus, Owen. 



The dental formula of the lower jaw of Dichodon cuspidatus, 

 according to Professor Owen, consists of three incisors, one ca- 

 nine, four premolars, and three true molars, arranged in a con- 

 tinuous series in each ramus, and it is inferred that these were 



* Read at Cheltenham at a Meeting of the Cotteswold Naturalists' Club, 

 May 4, 1862. 



