TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION C, 8375 
4. On the Age of the Lower Tertiary Marine Rocks of Australia. By 
R. Buraay Newton. 
The author referred briefly to the valuable palxontological work on the 
Australian Tertiaries carried out by such prominent authors as M‘Coy, Ralph 
Tate, Dennant, Hall, Pritchard, &¢., the majority of whom favoured an Eocene 
Age for the Lower Tertiary deposits of Australia. The late G. F. Harris 
doubted the existence of such a formation, whilst M. Cossmann could see no 
relationships among the Lower Tertiary Opisthobranchs from Australia with 
Kocene forms from Europe. 
Mr. F. Chapman, palontologist of the Melbourne Museum, has studied this 
subject, and proves very conclusively that those beds hitherto regarded as 
Kocene belong to the Miocene period—a view which the author fully supports. 
Mr, Chapman’s work on the Batesford limestone is important in this connection, 
because of its containing Lepidocyclina, Amphistegina, and Lithothamnium— 
all of which characterise the Miocene beds of Europe, Java, Sumatra, Borneo, 
Formosa, &c.; the absence of nummulites in this limestone is against its age 
being either Eocene or Oligocene. These same limestones have also yielded 
Mollusca and Brachiopoda, as well as Carcharodon megalodon, which has its 
origin in Miocene rocks. The author was of opinion that the Lower Tertiary 
faunas of Australia presented in some cases a recent facies, in others a Miocene 
facies with relationships to both European and South American species of that 
period. Among shells showing a resemblance to those of present-day seas, he 
mentioned Cassis contusus, Siphonalia spatiosa, Typhis laciniatus, all Tate’s 
species, and mostly from the Muddy Creek deposits; and many more species 
might be quoted exhibiting a more or less recent appearance. Among fossil 
forms more particularly referred to was the Aturia aturi var. australis, which 
has been recognised as coming from the Eocene of Australia. Although given 
a varietal name, this Cephalopod is not to be separated from the Miocene species 
of Europe known as Aturia aturi, and with this statement Mr. Crick, of the 
British Museum, thoroughly agrees. The species is found in many of the 
Australian deposits, as also in the Table Cape beds of Tasmania, the Oamaru 
beds of New Zealand, the Navidad beds of Chili, South America, as also in the 
European Miocene. The more or less pointed rostrum of Spirulirostra curta 
illustrates an affinity with Miocene forms rather than with Eocene, which are 
more obtuse. s 
The large Cypreas described by M‘Coy as Oligocene should more probably 
be regarded as Miocene, since they come from the Gellibrand River Beds, 
Muddy Creek deposits, &c., which also contain the Aturia aturi, before men- 
tioned. The Brachiopods of the Lower Tertiary deposits of Australia show 
a somewhat recent facies, a striking form being Magellania garibaldiana—a 
species occurring in the Mount Gambier Beds in association with the 
Aturia aturi. 
Even before Mr. Chapman pointed out the Miocene characters of the Lower 
Tertiary deposits of Australia, Dr. Ortmann, of the United States, had pub- 
lished in 1902 his important monograph on the Tertiary deposits of Patagonia, 
in which he compared thé faunas of that continent with those of Australia. 
His researches were against the presence of Eocene in the Tertiaries of 
Australasia, and those beds hitherto recorded as such he identified as 
Miocene, and contemporaneous with the Pareora beds of New Zealand, Navidad 
series of Chili, and the Patagonian deposits, all of which showed unmistakable 
affinities with each other and favoured the view that a former connection 
existed between South America and Australasia. 
The term Oligocene among Australasian marine Tertiaries, the author was 
inclined to abandon because of the absence of Nummulites, their place being 
taken by Amphistegina and Lepidocycline forms of Foraminifera. Such rocks 
he would regard as Miocene. This would apply to the Balcombian and 
Janjukian beds of Mornington &c. and the older deposits of Muddy Creek and 
other localities. 
