The Invertebrate Fauna of the Uitenhage Series. 39 



by the lamellibranchs, afford satisfactory data for a comparison with 

 European standards, we may safely conclude that no portion of the 

 Uitenhage Series represents a period of time earlier or later than 

 the Neocomian. It must be said, indeed, that the almost entire 

 restriction of Holcostephanus , sensu stricto (= Astiena Auctorum), 

 to the upper part of the Valanginian and lower beds of the 

 Hauterivian in Europe * suggests much narrower limits, when we 

 consider how important a place is taken by members of this genus 

 in characterising the cephalopod-fauna of the Uitenhage beds. 



Leaving, now, the consideration of evidence which leads to these 

 conclusions, we may proceed to compare the Uitenhage fauna with 

 those occurrences in extra-European regions which, in greater or 

 less degree, bear the imprint of a similar facies. 



III. COMPAEISON WITH EXTEA-EUEOPEAN FAUNAS. 



(a) Possible Traces of a Belated Fauna in the South-west of 

 Madagascar. Douville has drawn attention to the occurrence 

 of some lamellibranchs obtained by Lieutenant Boutonnet from 

 deposits situated in the Fiherenga Valley, in the basin of the 

 Isakondry Eiver, east of Tullear.f Mention is made of a large 

 Trigonia, said to be analogous to some of the Trigonia of the Oomia 

 beds in Cutch and of the Uitenhage Series, and with this is asso- 

 ciated a shell referred by Douville to the genus Pycnodonta, and said 

 by him to be closely comparable with Exogyra imbricata Krauss 

 (also referred to Pycnodonta by Prof. Douville). On the evidence of 

 these fossils, the strata containing them are considered by Douvill6 

 to be of Cretaceous age, and Lemoine classes them provisionally as 

 Lower Cretaceous. The account of these fossils so far published 

 is unfortunately meagre, and it must here suffice to have drawn 

 attention to the occurrence of forms in Madagascar which may 

 possibly indicate the presence of a fauna of Uitenhage character. 



(b) Comparison with the Fauna of the Oomia Group in Gutch. 

 Striking data for correlation are to be found among the lamelli- 

 branchs which constitute so large a part of the Uitenhage fauna, 

 and it becomes apparent that some of the conspicuous elements 

 which help to lend a definite character to the assemblage, while 

 finding no exact parallel in the European area, have an unmis- 

 takable counterpart in the fauna of the Oomia Trigonia-beds. This 



* In North Germany, for instance, the restriction of these forms to such narrow 

 limits is well marked. See von Koenen (3), pp. 4, 8, 9. 



t Douvill^ (2), p. 388; DouvillS (4), p. 215 ; Lemoine (1), p. 176. 



