56 



P R E S r D E N T I A L ADD U ESS. 



{Delivered 9th February, 1912.) 



ON THE LOWER TEETIARY MOLLUSCA OF THE FAYUM 

 PROVINCE OF EGYPT. 1 



By 11. BuLi.KN IS^Ewrox, F.G.S. 



PLATES HI AND IV. 



I. Introduction. 

 II. On the Geological Age of the Jebel el Qatrani Deposits. 



III. The Lutetian MoUusca of the Fayum, with list of species, as mono- 



graphed by Dr. Oppenheim. 



IV. Observations on some new, or otherwise interesting, Gastropoda from 



the Eocene deposits of the Fayum. ' 



V. Literature. I 



VI. Index to the Genera and Sijecies of the MoUusca. I 



I, Introductiox. 



In recent years the Fayum Province of Egypt lias been the scene of 

 some remarkable paloeontological discoveries which have brought to 

 light an entirely new vertebrate fauna, consisting of mammals, birds, 

 reptiles, and fishes, that had their existence during the Eocene stiige 

 of Lower Tertiary times. These interesting remains were collected 

 by Mr. H. J. L. Beadnell, F.G.S., when, as an officer of the Geological 

 Survey of Egvpt, he was investigating the structure of the region, as 

 well as by Dr. C. W. Andrews, F.B.S.,^ of the British Museum, the 

 latter having also fully described them in an elaborate memoir pub- 

 lished by the Trustees of the British Museum. For the stratigraphical 

 knowledge of this subject, however, we are mainly indebted to 

 Mr. Beadnell,^ who has written a complete history of the beds in 

 which these animals were found, with a review of all previous 

 opinions upon the subject. 



But besides these relics of a vertebrate fauna, the same rocks of the 

 Fayum have yielded a large number of invertebrate remains which 

 are of immense interest and claim an equal scientific importance, since 

 they constitute a material part of tlie faunistic characters of that 

 area of Egypt. Such fossils, belonging to all groups of the invertebrata, 

 have been known to palaeontologists for many years ; but by far 

 the most numerously represented are the ^lollusca, particularly the 

 Pelecypoda and Gastropoda, the Scaphopoda and Cephalopoda being 

 comparatively seldom found. The chief authorities on the Lower 

 Tertiary MoUusca of the Fayum include the names of the late 

 Professor Mayer-Eymar, M, Cossmann, Dr. Blanckenhorn, and Dr. Paul 

 Oppenheim. 



^ Published by permission of the Trustees of the British Museum. 

 - A Descrvptive Catalogue of the Tertiary Vertcbrata of the Fayum, Egypt, 1906. 

 '■^ The Topography and Geology of the Fayum Province of Egypt. Survey 

 Dept., Egypt '(Cairo), 1905. 



