Fossils from the Tertiaries of Victoria. 81 



from an unknown locality. The generic identification of the 

 Gorgonidae rests more on the characters of the spicules than of 

 the stem segments, but in the case of our fossils we have not this 

 important aid at our command. Still the resemblance of the 

 specimens to the recent species is so great that, provided any 

 reliability can be placed on the characters afforded by stem 

 joints, there seems no reason why they should not be referred to 

 this genus. 



Associated with these forms at " Forsyth's " is a number of 

 joints of quite different characters, but in the absence of recent 

 material as a guide I shall not attempt to place them. Stem 

 segments from our beds have been referred by Duncan to Isis, 

 but for no very apparent reason. Microscopic spicules apparently 

 of Alcyonaria are abundant in some of our Older Tertiary 

 clays. 



Locality and Age.—Gva.n^e Burn ("Forsyth's"). Kalimnan 

 (? Miocene). 



Astepoidea. 



Pentagonaster, sp. (PI. XI., Figs. 4, 5.) 



Marginal plates of Phanerozonic Starfish are not uncommon in 

 our Older Tertiary beds, but as they are not very striking in 

 appearance, are apt to be passed over as worn fragments. I had 

 collected a good many, and from their calcific cleavage had 

 recognised that they belonged to Echinodermata, but got no 

 further till I showed them to Prof. J. W. Gregory, and he 

 pointed out their nature. Similar plates are figured in Eastman's 

 translation of Zittel's Handbook of Palaeontology. Compared 

 with plates from the recent Pentagonaster australis of our 

 coasts, we find the fossils are for the most part more compressed 

 laterally, or are more elongate in the dorsiventral line. In shape 

 they are, roughly speaking, quadrants of a thick disc. The 

 greatest diameter of an average specimen is about 5 mm. The 

 largest I have seen is 13 mm., and the smallest about 2 mm. in 

 diameter. It seems hardly worth while attempting to fix a name 

 to such fragments, as their distinguishing characters are so few 

 and perhaps more than one species is represented. 



