SUB-FOSSIL CRUSTACEANS FROM THE COASTS 



OF AUSTRALIA. 



By R. ETHRRUxiE, .Thnr., Curator, 



AND 



Allax R. McCui.loch, Znolnonint. 

 (Plates i-vii. ; Fig. L) 



]. — Jnti;oi>uction. 



At various heaolies on tlie soutli, sontli-east, noitli, and 

 iiDTtli-west coasts of AiistrHlin, i-eiiiaiiis of DecMpoda more or 

 less encased in tdHy-nodiiles, are eveiy now und then bioiig'tit 

 to liglit, but veiy few fac-ts Hppear to lin\e been gatlieied as to 

 their mode of occurrence when in xitn. Again, similar animal 

 remains have been met with in excavating canals in delta 

 deposits, only in sncli instances tliey are less markedly nodular, 

 and have undergone a lesser degiee of fossilisniion. A tliird 

 occurrence is that of i-iver, oi' peihaps estuarine, de[>osits 

 bronglit to light through dredging operations. 



As an instance of the tii-st mode of occuri'ence we (;ite Anson 

 Bav, North-west Australia; of the second the C'oode Canal, 

 Yaria River Delta ; and of the third dredging operations cari'ied 

 on at the nH)uth of the Brisbane River, ^foreton Bay. All of 

 these occurrences will be referred to later. 



IL — History. 



The Hrst to describe one of these semi-fossil Decapoda from 

 Australia was Pn^f. Thomas Bell, of King's College, London. 

 It appears he ^leceived from Mr. W. Sharp Macleay, a mac- 

 ruran which he refej'red to the genus 'llmlnssi mi as 7'. Pnn^rli, 

 naming it after a " Mr. Emery " who apparently was the 

 collectoi', but unfortunatelv neither locality nor geolog-ical 

 information accom[)anied tlie s[)ecimen ; it was simy)ly said 

 to have been derived fi'om " New Holland." The first 

 description of the Thtiln^xiuu apjteared in the " Pioceedings 



