PALAEONTOLOGY 



TO the student of the past history of vertebrate life Worcestershire 

 is lacking in the interest which attaches to many English 

 counties, since it possesses no peculiar extinct vertebrate fauna 

 of its own. Indeed, vertebrate remains of any description are 

 comparatively rare within the limits of the county ; this being to some 

 extent accounted for by the circumstance that many of the Worcester- 

 shire formations were laid down at a period when vertebrates had not yet 

 made their appearance, while others were deposited when fishes seem to 

 have been the highest type in existence. 



Perhaps the greatest pal^ontological interest in the county is centred 

 in the circumstance that within its borders are found some of the oldest 

 fossils in England, several of which were first determined from Worcester- 

 shire specimens. These oldest fossils occur in the Hollybush Sandstone 

 of the Malvern Hills, which belong to the upper division of the 

 Cambrian epoch. The species known are comparatively few in number, 

 and all indicate low types of invertebrate life ; with the exception of 

 worm-tracks, they are comparatively rare, and require much patience to 

 find. Certain transversely wrinkled or plaited flexible tubes, which are 

 usually found crossing the strata obliquely or vertically, have been 

 regarded as indicating tube-dwelling worms, or annelids, for which the 

 name Trachyderma antiquissimum has been proposed. Other tubes of a 

 smoother type of structure have been described as Serpulites fistula, and 

 apparently indicate a second type of marine tube-dwelling worms. The 

 brachiopods, or lamp-shells, were represented by several small forms. 

 Most of these pertain to totally extinct genera, but the minute Lingula 

 {Lingulella) squamosa belongs to a genus still existing in modern seas. The 

 fossil form (which is distinguished by the presence of a groove in the 

 beak) is very minute, but the existing type, which is a flattened bivalve 

 triangular shell of a green colour and horny consistence, with a flexible 

 stem for attachment, attains a couple of inches in length. An allied 

 family is represented by Kutorgina cingulata, a species common to the 

 Upper Cambrian of Canada ; the genus Kutorgina differing from the 

 nearly related Oholella by the straight hinge-line.' 



In the overlying black Malvern shales the same species of Kutorgina 

 occurs, but the Lingula was distinguished by Dr. HoU as L. pygmaa. 



^ The Hollybush species is described by Dr. H. B. Holl in the Quart. Journ. Geo/. Soc, 

 vol. xxi. p. 89, as Oholella phillipsi ; the other fossils from this horizon being mentioned in 

 the same paper. 



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