[Proc. Roy. Soc. VicinKiA, 23 (N.S.), Pt. II., 1911]. 



Akt. XXXTT. — Oh nullie Klijiposcd I'jiiil iicd S'poDc/es 

 JTom Qaeeiis/(iji(/. 



By FRKDERTCK CH.\PMAN, A.L.S., 



Palaeontologist to the National Mnseum, Mellioiunt'. 



(With Plate LXXXII.). 

 [Read Hth December, U»10]. 



Introduction. 



The two specimens forming the sul>ject of this note were 

 purchased a few years ago for the National Museum collection 

 from a Melbourne dealer, by Avhom they were regarded, not un- 

 naturally, as " fossil fruits." It is fairly conclusive, however, 

 from their shape and superficial characters, that they are pseudo- 

 morphs of typical Upper Cretaceous siliceous sponges. These 

 pyritized fossils bore the rather vague locality label " Darling 

 Downs, i}." They are, therefore, presumably from the Desert 

 Sandstone formation (Upper Cretaceous), which is so exten- 

 sively exposed in certain parts of Queensland. xVnother fossil 

 specimen of very great interest accompanied the sponges in 

 the same collection, which helps to corroborate the location of 

 these fossils. It is a nearly perfect s])ecimen of an internal cast 

 of Mirraster, which in all probability can be referred to the 

 M. sweeti of Mr. Etheridge, junr., and which up to the present 

 was represented only by an imperfect cast from the Desert 

 Sandstone of Maryborough, Queensland. i 



The sole exposure of Desert Sandstone on the Darling Downs 

 is in the Derby District, where an elongated outlier, averaging 

 about ten miles across, extends in a south-easterly direction 

 from Wambo, south of the C(»ndamin6 River, to Mount Dom- 

 ville. Hence it is suggested that this is most likely the locality 

 which yielded these fossil pseudomorphs. 



1 Geol. and Pal. of t^ueeiisland and New Guiiit-a, 1S92, pp. 559, oGO. 



