THE BRYOZOAN FAUNA OF THE VINCENTOWN 



LIMESAND 



By Ferdinand Canu x 



Versailles, France 



and 

 Ray S. Bassler 



Head Curator, Department of Geology, United Slates National Museum 



INTRODUCTION 



The Mesozoic rocks of North America have so far afforded few 

 species of Bryozoa, in strange contrast with Europe, where many of 

 the formations, particularly of the Cretaceous system, often literally 

 abound in examples of the two orders Cyclostomata and Cheilosto- 

 mata. During our studies of the Tertiary Bryozoa of North Amer- 

 ica, published as United States National Museum Bulletins 106 and 

 125, we had occasion to investigate the generic types present in the 

 Vincentown limesand, a formation of the coastal plain of New Jersey, 

 at that time placed near the top of the Cretaceous and the only 

 strata in North America of supposed Mesozoic age that contain a 

 considerable number of those organisms. Some layers of the Vin- 

 centown limesand are so crowded with fragments of several biyozoan 

 species (pi. 21) that there is little room for other fossils, which, in- 

 deed, are rather rare except for the microscopic Foraminifera and 

 Ostracoda. Incrusting these few species {Cosci no pleura digit at a 

 and Pliophloea sagena) are many of the forms herein described. 

 Occurring more rarely with them in the loose sands are the other 

 species described. 



The Vincentown limesand and associated formations crop out in 

 a belt running diagonally across the State of New Jersey in a north- 

 east-southwest direction from Raritan Bay to Salem Countj^. These 

 formations have been the subject of study b}' several eminent paleon- 

 tologists and stratigraphers, and an excellent account of the facts 

 concerning them is given by Weller in his report on the Cretaceous 



1 Dr. Canu died on Feb. 12, 1932, a few weeks before this bulletin was submitted for 

 publication, bringing to a close the association of the authors in scientific work of almost 

 a quarter of a century. — Editor. 



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