385 



Appendix i. 



Devonian Foraminifera ; Tamworth District, Xew South 



Wales. 



By Fredk. Chapman, A.L.S., F.R.M.S,, Palaeontologist to the 

 National Museum, Melbourne. 



(Plates xxxix.-xli.) 



Introduction. 

 At the request of Dr. AV. N. Benson, B.A., F.G.S., I am giving 

 the details of foraminiferal evidence which I noticed whilst 

 examining some micro-sections of limestone from the Nemingha 

 horizon of the Tamworth Series The method of studying fora- 

 minifera from rock-slices, without accompanying specimens show- 

 ing the exterior of the test, is not entirely satisfactory, but the 

 fact that these organisms are of Devonian age is, in itself, of 

 sufficient importance to merit a record of the occurrence, fora- 

 minifera being extremely rare in Devonian faunas. 



The Rock-structure and its Stratigraphical Association. 

 The foraminifera under notice occur in a well-developed oolitic 

 limestone in which granules form a little more than half the 

 bulk of the rock. The granules vary in diameter from 046 to 

 0*7 mm., and only a small proportion are entirely due to oolitic 

 accretion; whether originally of algal origin or not it is impos- 

 sible to say, on account of their present mineralised condition. 

 The nucleus of the oolite-grain in more than one case was seen 

 to consist of an ossicle of a crinoid. The majority of the grains, 

 however, are microgranulitic in structure, either in the nucleus, 

 or more rarely throughout the entire granule. Certain of these, 

 from their more irregular outline, and often without an external 

 coat of concentric oolitic deposit, led me to suspect their fora- 

 miniferal relationship, which conclusion is borne out by further 

 study of the specimens. Some of the perfectly spherical grains 



28 



