TKANSACTIONS OF SECTION C. 



693 



I \ 



m 



pene. Of 

 nibu.tfiim, 

 MaModon 

 11 f/mcile, 

 Gazclla 



Miocene 

 eiin— bad 



IMiooene 



tlio Ivind 

 ' Pikerrai 



tolopists, 



Geological Conp:i'es,s. Amonn-st Enffli.sh writers the Miocene ago of the rikermi 

 beds appears goncrally admitte^d, as by ^Ir. Wallace,' Professor IJoyil Dawkins,'^ 

 Mr. E. T. Newton,'' and many others. Professor Oaiidry himself is \n\.:\ more 

 cautious; ho classes the fauna as intermediate between Pliocene and Mioo.e, and 

 (inly relegates it to Upper Pliocene because that is the position assigned ] y other 

 paltcontologists to beds containing remains of Ilipparion. lloweve,', in hia 

 bubse({uent works Professor Gaiulry has dasscul the Pikermi I'auna as AliocM.e. 



Now, the lowest of the beds with the vertebrate fauna at Pikermi w^-re by 

 Professor Qaudry himself found to be interstratified with a band of grey conglo- 

 luerate containing four characteristic marine Pliocene mollusca — Pccten Loicdic/us, 

 Lam.: Spondijlus gwderopux, L. ; Ontrea /«Hjc/Ai.*rt, lirocchi ; and O. «;((^(i,-;.', I.am. 

 It should be remembered that tlie Pliocene fauna of the Mediterranean area is 

 tlie richest and most typical in Europe, and is as well Iniown as any geological 

 fauna in the world. It should also be remembered that the Pliocene beds are well 

 developed in Greece at other localit ies besides I'ikermi. Professor Gaudry i •■•pccially 

 points out that the vertebrate remains, supposed to be tliose of Miocene animals, nro 

 di'posited in a stratum overlying a nuirine bed of undoubted Pliocene agf, and he 

 proposes the following hypothesis to account for the presence of Pliocene fnssils in a 

 Pliocene stratum. The remains lound at Pikermi are, lie thinks, those of anlnialsthat 

 inhabited the extensive plains which in Miocene times extended over a com-lderable 

 proportion of the area now occu]ned by the I'^ustern Mediterranean, and which 

 united Greece to Asia ; the plains were broken np by the dislocations tliiit took 

 place at the close of the Miocene period, and the animals escaped to the iro mtains, 

 •where they died for want of space and of food. Their bones were subsequently 

 washed down by the streams from the hills and buried in the Pliocene deposits of 

 Pikermi. 



Professor Gaudry evidently has no very profound faith in this hypoth'MS, and 

 it is unnecessary to refute it at length. One fact is sullicient to sliuw that it is 

 luitenable. However sudden may have been the cataclysm that is supjjosed to 

 have broken up the Miocene plains of Atticta, a very long period, measured in 

 years, must have elapsed before the Pliocene marine fauna could have establislied 

 itself. Now, the bones of mammals exposed on the surface decay rapidly ; the 

 toeth break up, the bones become brittle. It is doubtful if bones that had been 

 exposed for only live or six years would he washed down by a stream v.ithout 

 henig broken into fragments; the teeth especially would split to pieces. The con- 

 dition of the Pikermi fossils proves, I think, that they must have been bur'ed very 

 soon after the animals died, that they were not exposed on the surface for any 

 length of time, and that they could not have been washed out of an earlit r forma- 

 tion, and it appears to me incredible that the Pikermi mammals v.-n'e not 

 contemporary with the Pliocene mollusca that occur in the same beds. In short, 

 I cannot but conclude that the Pikermi mammals were Pliocene /iiid not 

 -Miocene. 



This view is entirely in accordance with the opinions of Theodor Fuchs.'' lie 

 has given a good account of the geology of various places in Greece, and amongst 

 dthers of Pikermi. 1 le found, again, the conglomerate with Pliocene marine mollusca 

 interstratified with the basal portion of the mammaliferoi.s beds, and he concludes'' 

 that not only is it clear that these mammaliferous beds are of Pliocene age, but 

 that a comparison of their geological position with that of the marine strata of 

 the Piraeus proves that the Pikermi beds occupy a very hi;, position in the Pliocene, 

 and are probably the highest portion of the system as developed in the 

 neighbourhood. 



Fuchs also shows that the principal Pliocene mammaliferous Leds are of later date 

 than the typical Pliocene (Subapennine) beds of Italy, and tliat some mammalia 

 found associated with the latter comprise forms identical with those of the Pikermi 



' OeoqraphiQal Distribution of Animals, i. p. 115. 



= Q. J. G. S. 1880, p. iJ8!>. 



» Q. J. G. S. 1884. pp. 284, 287, &c. ■ 



* UcnJtschr. K. Acad. Wisi. M'ien, 1877, xxxvii, 2» Abth. , j 



* L. e. p. 30. 



my 



