192 Prof. M'Coy on the Recent Zoology 



or Phocodon [P. Wilkinsoni, ]\I'Coy), from the Miocene Tertiary 

 sands of tlie Cape Otway cosst : and as the genus is only known 

 in Miocene strata of Malta and the French falun, the occurrence 

 of a new species of so restricted a genus is not only valuable as 

 an addition to palseontology, but an interesting fact as showing 

 that the zoology of Australia, as I have on former occasions en- 

 deavoured (contrary to received opinions) to establish, was not, 

 during the older Tertiary period, of the isolated exceptional 

 character it now has, but was then closely related generically, and 

 even specifically, as I shall show, to that of many parts of Europe 

 and America. The molar teeth of P. Wilkinsoni are smaller 

 than the Maltese P. scilla, and agree most nearly with the Squa- 

 lodon [Phacodon) Grateloupi (Meyer) of the Miocene beds near 

 Eordtaux, from which the Australian species differs chietiy in 

 smaller size, some details of proportions, and the relatively 

 larger roots, indicating a greater depth of jaw. In these same 

 beds remains offish are not uncommon; and these are almost 

 all of well-known European and American Miocene and Upper 

 Eocene Tertiai'y extinct species of Plagiostomi : the most 

 abundant widely distributed species is, I have no doubt, per- 

 fectly identical with the Carcharodon angustidens (Ag.) of the 

 Biinde and other well-marked European Lower Miocene and 

 Oligocene beds. The C. megaludun (Ag.) is an almost equally 

 common Australian Miocene species, and (on comparison, as n\ 

 the former case, of specimens) undoubtedly identical with the 

 Lower Miocene and Oligocene Tertiary specimens from Malta, 

 Biinde, and other European sections, and with those from the 

 Eocene London Clay and North-American localities. The 

 Otodus Desori (Ag.), Lamna elegans (Ag.), and h. contortidens 

 (Ag.), of the European and United-States Miocene localities, 

 are also common in many of our Victorian Miocene beds, in 

 which I have also identified the Lamna denticidata (Ag.), and 

 the large teeth of Oxyrhina trigonodon (Ag.), exactly agreeing 

 with those of the Lower Miocene beds of the Rhine country. 

 Along with these entirely extinct plants, mammals, and fish, 

 there are many genera and species of Mollusca entirely extinct, 

 many identical with extinct species of the same geological age 

 in other localities both in Europe and North America, and many 

 of the commonest forms are identical with living species, none 

 of which are found in the adjacent seas of Victoria, but in the 

 warmer seas north of New Zealand, Philippines, and South 

 Africa), with one or two rare exceptions of species extending 

 into colder latitudes in the northern hemisphere. 



A fine new Aturia {A. australis, M'Coy) is the most common 

 and important of the fossil Cephalopoda, closely related to the 

 Aturia ziczac of the Lower Miocene and Upper Eocence beds 



