) 



PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION C. 423 



9.— PRELTxMINARY NOTE ON ARCILEOCYATHIN^ FROM 

 THE CAMBRIAN "CORAL REEFS" OF SOUTH AUS- 

 TRALIA. 



By T. GRIFFITH TA YLOB, B.Sc, B.E., Assistant Demonstrator in Palaeontology, 

 Geology, and Mineralogy at the University of Sydney. 



IWiTH Eight Figures and Two Plates.] 



INTRODUCTION. 



During February, 1906, the Author made a journey to South Aus- 

 tralia for the purpose of collecting specimens of the Cambrian organisms, 

 provisionally classed with the corals, belonging to the family Archseo- 

 cyathinse. The fossils occur in a limestone belt extending some 400 miles 

 in a northerly direction from Port Victor to Lake Eyre. They constitute 

 probably the largest fossiliferous deposit of Cambrian age in the world, 

 and this fact alone renders them of the highest palaeontological interest. 

 When it is recognised that practically no other members of the Coelen- 

 terata have been recorded from pre-Ordovician rocks, it is evident 

 that the ancestry of the whole phylum may very reasonably be involved 

 in a study of these fossils. Moreover, if the Porifera be taken as a 

 separate phylum, it is not impossible that the Archseocyathinae represent 

 a link connecting the Coelenterata and Porifera. Thus light may be 

 thrown on the evolution of two out of the eight subdivisions of the 

 Animal Kingdom. Hence the investigation is of fundamental im- 

 portance in the great scheme of biogenesis. 



In 1861 Billings described the first specimens from Labrador, gave 

 them the name of Archaeocyathus, or " ancient cup," and classed them 

 with the siliceous sponges. In 1865, Dawson declared that Archseo- 

 cyathus was a giant foraminifer allied to Eozoon. In 1880, Professor 

 Romer referred the whole group to the same family as ReceptacuUtcs — ■ 

 another doubtful " missing link " of invertebrate biology. Hinde, 

 however, placed them with the sponges, and in 1886 they were classed 

 as Hexactinellids. In 1886 appeared a comprehensive work on the 

 Cambrian fossils of Canalgrande, in Sardinia, which treats largely 

 of this family, and later the same author (Professor Bornemann) con- 

 cluded that they constitute a special group of Coelenterata midway 

 between Porifera and Anthozoa. In 1900, Zittel places them with 

 the perforate corals. Finally may be mentioned the revolutionary 

 theory of Von Toll. This Russian scientist, from an examination of 

 Siberian specimens, relegates the Archaeocyathinge to the VegetabiUa, 

 and allies them to the calcareous algee. It may be stated that 

 the Australian specimens do not seem to bear out this idea in the 

 least. 



The only noteworthy Australian account was published in 1889 by 

 Mr. R. Etheridge. He describes some South Australian specimens 

 {Ethmoph'/llum Hiniei, Protophiretra Scoulari, and Coscinocyathus 

 Tatei), but the character of the specimens precluded a very detailed 

 account, and practically no attempt was made to investigate the classi- 

 fication or biology of the group as a whole. 



