191 6. No. 10. THE LOWER CAMBRIAN HOLMIA FAUNA. 5 



Ver}- great interest is attached to Brogger's work "Alderen av 

 Olenellus- zonen i Nord Amerika" ^, which appeared 3 3-ears later, not 

 because it makes any fresh contribution to our knowledge of the fauna at 

 Tomten, but because it proves the agreement between our Scandinavian 

 Lower Cambrian fauna and the rich American Olenellus fauna, thereby 

 demonstrating that this animal life was characteristic of the oldest Cambrian 

 period, and older than the Paradoxides period. 



Soon after, in the year 1887, there appeared a small paper b}' 

 G. Holm: "Om Olenellus Kjerulfi" -. On the basis of the extensive ma- 

 terial that Holm had himself collected at Tomten in 1877 and 1879, he 

 produced, both with regard to text and illustrations, an excellent description 

 of the form. It was in fact undoubtedly the best that had been given of 

 an}' Olenellus. Holm was thereby able to prove with certainty that the 

 Scandinavian form, as also contended by Brøgger, w-as a genuine Olenellus, 

 and not a Paradoxides as American paleontologists still maintained. Holm 

 also had fragments of the large Olenellus form amongst his material, but 

 like earlier writers he regarded them as remains of full-grown, old spe- 

 cimens of Holniia Kjerulfi. The other fauna were not dealt with by 

 Holm in the work under consideration. 



Some 3-ears passed before an}' fresh contribution to our knowledge 

 of the Holniia fauna at Tomten appeared, but in the meantime, Olenellus 

 Kjerulfi, which had been so well described and illustrated by Holm, was 

 discussed by several foreign authors, especially American. Thus Matthew, 

 in a work dated 1888 -^, mentions that the form constitutes a new family, 

 just between Olenellus and Paradoxides, and he proposes to name it after 

 Holm. This was done 2 years later by Marcou"', who rriade a new 

 family Holniia. The majority of subsequent authors have agreed to this. 

 Finally, in the year 1897. a new work enlarged our knowledge bf 

 the Tomten fauna, when G. Holm published a little contribution entitled 

 "Om forekomsten av Torellella laevigata i Olenellus-skifferen vid Tomten" °. 

 It was there stated that in the material he had previously collected Holm 

 found a small, flattened specimen of this important form. It is of interest 

 to find that Holm notes that he considers Olenellus Miciiivitzi Schm. not 

 to be a Mesonacis, as Walcott had desired, but as a near relative of 

 Holniia Kjerulfi. 



^ Geol. Foren. Forhandl. Bd. VIII, pag. 187. 



- Geol. Foren. Forhandl. Bd. IX. 



3 Canadian Record of Science, Vol. III, page 75. 



* American Geologist, Vol. V. page 365. 



^ Geol. Foren. Forhandl. Bd. 19. 



