DESCRIPTION 
OF 
THE BRITISH FOSSIL CORALS. 
CHAPTER I. 
CORALS OF THE CRAG. 
Tue Crag formation of the East of England is generally reputed very rich in Fossil 
Corals; and the name given to the lower strata of this system is even derived from the 
abundance of various organic remains of coralloid appearance which occur in some 
localities. But this opimion arises from the confusion which has till lately been made 
between Bryozoa and Polypi; in reality true Corals are far from being common in any of 
these beds. The four species mentioned by Mr. Searles Wood, in the Catalogue of the 
Zoophytes of the Crag, published in 1844 in the ‘Annals of Natural LenS are the only 
known Polypidoms belonging to this geological division. 
These fossils are found in the Red Crag as well as in the Coralline Crag, and most of 
them are as yet peculiar to England ; only one species has been met with on the Continent, 
in the Crag of Antwerp, a strata belonging to the same geological horizon ; and none of 
them are known to live in the seas of the present period. The Sphenotrochus intermedius 
has, it is true, been considered as existing on the coast of England as well as in the Crag ; 
but the recent species, which has lately received the name of Sphenotrochus Andrewianus,' 
is perfectly distinct from the fossil Coral to which it was at first referred. It is also worthy 
of remark that the Crag Corals belong to four distinct genera, each of which is represented 
by different species in the other Miocene formations ; that three of these genera are also 
represented by peculiar species in our actual Fauna, and that none of them have been 
discovered in strata anterior to the older tertiary formations. 
! Milne Edwards and J. Haime, Monographie des Turbinolides, Ann. des Se. Nat., 3"° serie, vol. ix, 
p- 245, tab. vii, fig. 4. 
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