536 HISTORY OF GEOLOGY AND PAL/EON TOLOGY. 



upheaval of the Alps, and was covered by the advance of over- 

 thrust masses from the -south. 



Studer distinguished &Jura and a Sub- Alpine band of deposit. 

 The former is limited to the north-western and northern parts 

 of the Jura chain, and consists of a lower marine division with 

 fossils which agree with those of the Mainz basin, and an upper 

 series of fresh-water limestones and marls, whose Mammalian 

 remains were identified by H. von Meyer as Upper Miocene. 

 This Jura band of deposit, according to Studer, presents a 

 continuation of the Tertiary basin in the Upper Rhine pro- 

 vinces. In the Sub-Alpine band the Tertiary deposits begin 

 with lower fresh-water formations, which continue towards the 

 south-west into the Rhone Valley; they consist of red marls 

 and Molasse sandstones with beds of brown-coal, and contain 

 an exceedingly rich flora (cf. O. Heer, p. 371). The lists of 

 fossils which Studer enumerated prove that he comprised strata 

 of dissimilar age within these lower deposits. The fresh-water 

 formations are succeeded by marine molasse, sandstones charged 

 with bivalve shells, and nagelflue of varied constitution. The 

 marine fauna of this second member in the sub-Alpine band 

 is compared by Studer with Miocene faunas, and he adds that 

 it displays certain affinities with the Italian Pliocene, The 

 third member is an upper fresh-water series, the sandy, marly, 

 and calcareous rocks which have been so long famous for the 

 fossils contained in them at Oeningen. These were made 

 known by Scheuchzer, and were the subject of the admirable 

 researches by Braun, Heer, and K. Mayer. 



The identifications of the Mollnsca in Studer's work 

 were for the most part the work of K. Mayer. This inde- 

 fatigable palaeontologist has continued throughout his long 

 career to describe and compare the Swiss Tertiary fossils, and 

 to draw up synchronous tables showing their precise corre- 

 spondence with the faunas of other Alpine and extra-Alpine 

 localities. The first of these tables appeared in 1857, wherein 

 Mayer sub -divided the Swiss series into eleven palseonto- 

 logical zones. The first five of these (Garumnien, Suessonien, 

 Londonien, Parisien, and Bartonien] are assigned to the 

 Eocene; the Ligurian stage contains the Flysch, the Upper 

 Nummulite formations of Biarritz, the Montmartre gypsum, 

 etc. Mayer places the Swiss representatives of Tongrien and 

 Aquitanien in the Oligocene epoch; the Helvetien and Tor- 

 tonien in the Miocene ; and the Astien in the Pliocene epoch. 



