PALAEONTOLOGY 



the Red Crag have been described as a race of the whiting with the 

 name of G. merlangus suffblcensis ; while yet another form, typically 

 from the Coralline Crag of Gedgrave, has been regarded as indicating 

 an extinct species (G. pseudoeglifinus) nearly allied to the haddock. 

 Fish spines in the York Museum indicate the occurrence of a sturgeon 

 [Acipenser) in the Red Crag ; but whether the remains are contempora- 

 neous or washed out of an older deposit does not appear to be ascer- 

 tained. 



The occurrence of species of dog-fishes and sharks in the Suffolk 

 Crag is indicated by numerous remains. Among these two teeth from 

 the Red Crag of Little Bealings near Woodbridge are regarded as belong- 

 ing to a species nearly related to the common tope [Galeus canis). 

 Certain spines from the Red Crag of Woodbridge and elsewhere were 

 shown by Sir W. H. Flower to be indistinguishable from those with 

 which the ' claspers ' of the gigantic basking-shark [Cetorhinus maximus) 

 of modern seas are armed. The largest member of the shark tribe now 

 living, the widely distributed Rondeleti's shark {Carcharodon rondektii) is 

 represented by teeth from the Red Crag of Sutton and elsewhere and the 

 Coralline Crag of Orford. Still larger teeth of the same type from the 

 Red Crag of Woodbridge, Felixstow and other places in the county 

 are assigned to the extinct C. megalodon, whose remains are met with in 

 later Tertiary strata almost all over the world. Large teeth similar to 

 these fossil specimens were dredged during the Challenger expedition 

 from the depths of the Pacific in such a condition as to lead to the 

 belief that the species was still living at a comparatively recent epoch. 

 Rondeleti's shark is known to attain a length of 40 feet, but the fossil 

 teeth (some of which measure 4 inches across and 5 in height) must 

 indicate a fish half as large again. Shark teeth from the Red Crag 

 nodule bed belonging to forms allied to the porbeagle have been referred 

 to the species known as Oxyrhina hastalis, Odontaspis elegans and O. con- 

 tortidens. With regard to teeth of the second form Mr. E. T. Newton 

 writes as follows : ' Numerous examples from the Red Crag nodule 

 bed are in the Museum of Practical Geology ; some of them are 

 probably derived from older beds, being much rolled and worn ; but 

 many of them are beautifully perfect, with the cutting edge quite sharp, 

 and these it is thought must be of a Red Crag age.' Nearly similar 

 remarks will apply to those of the third species. Very characteristic of 

 the Crag are the teeth of a large species of comb-toothed shark, which 

 have been identified by Dr. Smith Woodward with Notidanus gigas, a 

 species typically from the Pliocene strata of Tuscany. According to 

 Mr. Newton remains of this species have been found in the nodule bed 

 of the Red Crag at Woodbridge, Butley, Felixstow and other localities 

 in the county. 



Remains of eagle-rays of the genera Myliobatis and Mtobatis are not 

 uncommon in the Red Crag of the county ; but the majority of these, 

 as noticed below, are evidently derived from Eocene strata ; the name 

 M. tumidens has however been applied to a species typified by Red Crag 



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