144 Prof. F, M‘Coy on the Ancient and Recent 
within the last few weeks: for a friend of Mr. Clarke’s having 
collected a number of fossils from Wollumbilla, in the northern 
part of New South Wales, the latter gentleman sent them to Mel- 
bourne with a request that I “would determine the geological 
epoch to which they belonged ;” and here, without at all entering 
on the description of the species, I can state that they furnish a 
most complete answer to the objection, and are the marine equi- 
valents of exactly the same age as that I assign to the plant beds, 
2. e., Lower Mesozoic, not older than the base of the Trias, and 
not younger, I think, than the lower part of the great Oolite. 
The collection contains large Belemnites of the general aspect of B, 
giganteus, B. pazillosus and similar Lias and Lower Oolite forms, 
Pentacrinus, and a number of large species of Serpula, Lima, 
Pecten, Arca, Nucula, Rhynchonella, &c., having the general facies 
of Lower Oolitic, Liassic, and Triassic forms*. And thus we reach 
the next great onward step in our attempt at a comparison of 
the natural history of Australia and other countries in the 
ancient periods, the history of whose creations can only be traced 
by paleontology; and we find that at this the Oolitic epoch to 
which allusion was made at the commencement of this paper, 
the whole facies of the fauna of the sea and the flora of the land 
had undergone just such changes as marked the geologically 
corresponding creations in India, Yorkshire, Germany, and 
America. I may remark that in the Wollumbilla fossils there 
are no Trigonia, although from the remarks in the first para- 
graph it is obvious that English geologists would expect them ; 
but in their place I recognized a distinct species of Professor 
Bronn’s muschelkalk genus Myaphoria, enabling me to suggest, 
on paleontological grounds, the presence of triassic beds in 
Australia. 
4. Tertiary Period. 
The next epoch in the Ancient Natural History of Australia, 
represented by the deposition of the widely spread Tertiary forma- 
tions, could not have been contemplated by those who indulged 
in the speculations referred to in the beginning of this paper ; for 
we find that here, as in Europe, the greater part of the country 
sank under the sea during the Tertiary period, and every trace 
of the previous creations of plants and animals was destroyed 
and replaced by a totally different new set, both of plants and 
animals, more nearly related to those now occupying the land 
and sea of the country. This, then, quite puts an end to the 
* In a note received from Mr. Clarke since learning my impression of 
the age of these fossils, I am happy to state he announces his willingness 
now, as a new view, to consider his ‘‘ Wianamatta beds,” connected with 
the disputed Coal beds, as Lower Mesozoic. ‘ 
