ON THE SUCCESSION AND HOMOTAXIAL RELATIONSHIPS 
OF THE AUSTRALIAN CAINOZOIC SYSTEM. 
By Frederick Chapman, A.L.S., F.R.M.S., Palaontologist to the 
National Museum, Melbourne. 
CONTENTS. 
Previous Opinions of Time Equivalents me - ae fe 5 
The Relative Values of the Percentage Method; and the Comparison of 
Typical Faunas, in determining the Ages of the Australian Cainozoic 
Strata Ea Sse a ae eo we = 10 
Some Cosmopolitan and Widely-distributed Fossil Types and_ their 
Significance .. sé ok oh LN Uh. fd 13 
On the Absence of Nummutlites in the Cainozoics of Southern Australia... 20 
The Evidence of the Complex-structured Foraminifera in the Australian 
Cainozoic System at ne ay ae ae Re. 23 
Stratigraphical Notes bearing on the Sequence of the Strata s es 26 
Table of Cainozoie Strata in Australia : +A Re A: 50 
Summary of Conclusions... oF e oe He a 50 
Previous Oprintons oF Time EQUIVALENTS. 
In the earlier days of paleontological work in Victoria, the 
conclusions as to the age of the rich Tertiary faunas of southern 
Australia* were necessarily founded on limited evidence, derived 
from an imperfectly-known series of fossils. The paleontology of 
these beds had then been scarcely touched by systematic workers, 
so that the small number of species available for purposes of com- 
parison, both in relation to the question of local stratigraphical 
sequence and the wider one of correlating them with the well-studied 
Tertiary faunas of Europe, rendered a solution of the problem one 
of great difficulty. 
The first effort at correlation was made by Sir A. R. C. Selwyn in 
1854, who, in a “ Report on the Geology, Paleontology, and 
Mineralogy of the Country situated between Melbourne, Western 
Port Bay, Cape Schanck, and Point Nepean,’+ stated, “ Both the 
clay and limestone” [of the Mornington beds = Baleombian] “are 
very rich in fossil remains, and both in general lithological character, 
* By southern Australia it is intended to include the States of South Australia and Victoria, 
which have a community of facies in Tertiary stratigraphy. This explanation is necessary 
from the fact that localities in Victoria have often been erroneously referred by European 
palwontologists to South Australia. 
+ Parl. Papers, 1854-55, vol. i. 
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