Ne>V and Hair Fossils. 177 



spicules Assoc ///fed in the Deposits wifh Mopsea. — Alcyonariam 

 spicules are imt uiicoiniiioii in the finest washings of the polyzoal 

 i-(n-k (if the Mallee hores. Thev appeal- to he all of one general 

 type, and witliout imuh douht may he referred to the same 

 organisms as these here deseiihed. They agree with certain species 

 of Mopsea found round the Australian coast at the present day, and 

 closely iesend)le those Hgun-d under the name of Mopsea whiteleggei 

 by Thomson and Mackinnon.i a delicate and graceful plume-like 

 form from Broken Bay, New South Wales. The fossil spicules her«r 

 recorded are fusifoini, twisted to a long S-shape. or V-shape, and 

 sparsely covered with short rounded, blunt or square-ended 

 tul)ercles. They measui'e from .375 to .4 mm. in length. 



.Mopsea UAMiLroNi, Thomson sp. (Plate XVII., Fig. 16). 



his sp., Duncan, iSTo, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xixi., 



p. 674. pi. xxxviii.a, figs. 5 and (?) 6, 7, 7a. 

 Isis sp.. 1, Id., 1880, Palaeontologia Indica (Sind Fossil 

 Corals and Alcyonaria) ser. xiv., vol. i., pt. 1, p. lU9, 

 pi. xxviii., figs. 8. 9. 

 /sis /lamilfoni, Thomson. 1908. Trans, and Proc. N.Z. 



Inst., for 1907, vol. xl., p. 99, pi. xiv., fig. 1. 

 Mopsea hamiltoni, Thomson sp., Chapman, 1912, Mem. 

 Nat. Mus., Melbourne. No. 4, p. 43. pi. vi., figs. 

 3«, h: 4. 

 Ohstrrations. — The calcareous joints of this species are scarce in- 

 the present collection, as compared with those of the foregoing- 

 Mopsea tenisoni. Their differential characters are well defined in 

 most examples, as seen in specimens now figured, in Avhich the radial 

 lines on the condyles are very pronounced and distinctly crenulate. 



Duncan's Indian specimens referred to above were from the 

 Gaj Series (Burdigalian) ; Naigh-Nai Valley, S.W. of Sehwaii. 

 Duncan compares these fossils with his previously figured examples 

 from C. Otway, Victoria; and there is no doubt of their close- 

 relationship if not identity. 



Mopsea hamiltoni is now known from the Cape Otway Series, from 

 King Island, and from the greensands of Kakanui. New Zealand, 

 as well as from three of the borings in the Mallee ; whilst a piac- 

 tically identical form occurs in tlie Gaj Series of India. 



Disfn'hution.—Bove 3. 226 feet. Bore 4. 163-170 feet. Bore- 

 11. 342-510 feet. 



1. Mem. .^ustr. Mus. Mem. iv., pt. 13, Alcyonaria, inu, p. 678, pi. Ixvi., fijft. i, 3; pi. Ixiii. 



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