PALEONTOLOGY 



white whale or beluga {Delphinapterus leucas), which is likewise a 

 northern species, the common dolphin {Delphinus delphis), probably 

 the bottle-nosed dolphin {Tursiops tursio), and the porpoise {Phoccena 

 communis) . 



The list of birds, reptiles, and amphibians from the Forest Bed is 

 but small, and includes none but living species. These are the eagle- 

 owl {Bubo ignavus), the cormorant {Phalacrocorax carbo), a goose [Anser), 

 the shoveler [Spatula clypeata)^ the water-snake {Tropidonotus natrix), the 

 viper (Vipera berus), the common frog {Rana temporaria), perhaps the 

 edible frog {R. esculenta), the toad {Bufo vulgaris), and the newt {Molge 

 cristata) . 



The fishes include the perch (Perca fiuviatilis), probably the ruffe 

 [Acerina vulgaris), the extinct Platax woodivardi, the tunny [Thynnus 

 vulgaris), the plaice [Plates sa vulgaris), the cod {Gadus morrhua), probably 

 the barbel (Barbus vulgaris), the roach [Leuciscus rutilis), the chub 

 {L. cephalus), the rudd (L. erythrophthalmus), the tench {Tinea vulgaris), 

 the bream {Abramis brama), the pike {Esox lucius), and the sturgeon 

 {Acipenser sturio)^ The land and freshwater shells of the Forest Bed 

 belong to existing species, and include the common pond-mussel 

 {Anodonta cygnea), the painter's mussel {Unio pictorum), Pisidium amnicum, 

 Corbicula Jiuminalis, and species of Helix, Planorbis, Valvata, etc. The 

 marine molluscs, on the other hand, are mostly of an Arctic type, and 

 comprise My a truncata, Tellina balthica, Cardium edule (cockle), Leda 

 myalis, Astarte borealis, etc. 



In addition to the numerous stumps of trees from which the 

 formation derives its name, plant remains occur commonly in one par- 

 ticular horizon of the Forest Bed ; the most interesting being the water- 

 chestnut {Trapa nutans), a species now quite unknown in a living state 

 in Britain. 



The vertebrates of the Norwich and Weybourn Crags are much 

 less numerous than those of the Forest Bed, and, as might be expected, 

 include a larger percentage of extinct types. Among the mammalian 

 remains a tooth from the Norwich Crag at Bramerton, preserved in the 

 Norwich Museum, is believed to indicate an extinct otter, for which the 

 name Lutra reevei has been suggested. A thigh-bone (femur) from the 

 Chillesford beds, in the same museum, is referable to the Crag walrus 

 {Odobcenus huxleyi) ; and there are indications of a seal. Teeth of some 

 kind of ox are occasionally met with in the Norwich Crag, which has 

 also yielded the remains of an extinct gazelle {Gazella anglica). Antlers 

 from the same deposit have been assigned to the Arde deer {Anoglochis 

 ardeus), a species typically occurring in the Pliocene of France ; and 

 others have been regarded as identical with that race of the giant Irish 



* For the vertebrate fossils from the Forest Bed the reader should consult The Vertebrata 

 of the Forest-bed Series of Norfolk and Suffolk (1882) and The Fertebrata of the Pliocene Deposits 

 of Britain, both by E. T. Newton, and published by the Geological Survey. For a revision of 

 the deer see The Deer of all Lands (1898), by the present writer, and a paper by Mr. C. 

 Harmer on Cervus belgrandi, published in the Transactions of the Zoological Society for 1899. 



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