STRATIGRAPHICAL GEOLOGY, 483 



means of elucidating the coal-bearing Mesozoic deposits in 

 Lower and Upper Austria. Up to that time these deposits had 

 been collectively termed " Gresten beds," and assigned to the 

 Lower Lias. Lipold and his colleagues in the survey, Hertle 

 and Stelzner, showed, however, that although coal-seams occur 

 in the Liassic "Gresten beds," the coal-seams at Lunz, Lilien- 

 feld, Scheibbs, Gaming, Gossling, etc., occurred in a complex 

 of strata whose fauna and flora were undoubtedly Triassic. 

 Lipold gave the name of Lunz series to the sandy and shaly 

 coal-bearing complex, and Stur, who worked out the flora of 

 this series, identified it with that of the " Lettenkohle " in 

 Franconia and Swabia. In the lower portion of the "Lunz 

 series " Posidonomya Wengensis (a Wengen-Cassian type) and 

 Ammonites floridus were identified ; Hertle proposed to differ- 

 entiate this horizon as Reingraben shales. The limestone beds 

 below these shales were found to be rich in Ualobia Lom- 

 meli and Ammonites Aon, and were distinguished as Gossling 

 strata. 



The diversified deposits of the Gossling, Reingraben, and 

 Lunz groups pass gradually upward into purer limestone and 

 dolomite beds, which received the local name of Opponitz-lime- 

 stone, and were found to contain the characteristic Lamelli- 

 branch fauna of the upper or "Torer" horizons of the Raibl 

 strata at Raibl. The continuity of the palaeontological sequence 

 in these horizons of Trias in the north-eastern Alps was the 

 more important, as the succession of the strata containing them 

 was held to be undisturbed, and therefore the order of the 

 consecutive palseontological types in this locality was regarded 

 as a safe standard for comparison in determining the age of 

 the same faunas when they appeared in partial development in 

 the scattered patches of fossiliferous deposits elsewhere. 



Between the years 1865 and 1869, Laube published an 

 admirably illustrated monograph of the St. Cassian fauna, and 

 his identifications and nomenclature of the fossils corrected 

 many errors which had been made by Minister and Klipstein. 

 Laube emphasised the peculiar character of the St. Cassian 

 fauna, pointed out the great difference between it and the 

 much more highly-developed fauna of the Hallstatt limestones, 

 and the strong resemblance between the St. Cassian and Raibl 

 faunas. 



In the summer of 1866, E. Mojsisovics von Mojsvar began 

 his Triassic studies, which he has continued for more than thirty 



