172 



GEOLOGY. 



On the discovery of Fossil Mammalian Remains, 

 in Durleston Bay. 



[ Read at Smedmore, November 9th, 1857. ] 



It was in the year 1854, that Mr. W. R. Brodie made the 

 first very interesting and important discovery of Mammalian re- 

 mains in the Purbeck series, in Durleston bay. It consisted of 

 portions of the lower jaw, with teeth, of the Spalacothenum 

 Tricuspidens, Owen, a small insectivorous animal, resembling, 

 as to the shape of its teeth, the Cape mole, Chrysochlora aurea. 

 Previous to this date only six species of fossil mammalia had 

 been discovered in the whole world, from rocks older than the 

 Tertiary; four of which had been obtained from the inferior 

 Oolite of Stonesfield. The discovery therefore, of Mammalia in 

 the Purbeck beds was most interesting, on account of its de- 

 monstrating their existence about midway between the older 

 oolitic and the oldest tertiary periods. Mr. Brodie obtained 

 them from the bed which I have denominated, from its general 

 character as exposed in the cliff, the "Dirt-bed," No. 93. (see 

 p. 13.) He continued his researches during the years 1855-56, 

 and discovered some other specimens. But it was not for a single 

 hand fully to develop the riches which this bed evidently con- 

 tained. This was reserved for Mr. Beckles, so well known jfrom 

 his geological researches in other rocks, who during the summer 

 and autumn of 1857, gave his sole attention to the work, and 

 at a considerable expense removed a vast mass of the cliff, thus 

 exposing an area of forty feet in length, by ten feet in width, 

 from which he obtained the remains of five or six new species 



