254 G. Sharman 8f E. T. Newton — Cretaceous Fossils, Aberdeen. 



Waldheimia hippopns var. Tilbyensis, Dav. — Two moulds of this 

 brachiopod have yielded casts, so exactly resembling examples of 

 this variety in the Museum of Practical Geology, that we have 

 no doubt as to the determination. 



ECHINODERMATA. 



Enallaster (Toxaster) Scoticus, Salt. — Several more or less frag- 

 mentary specimens doubtless belong to the species thus named by 

 Salter and Baily, which seems to be nearly allied to E. granosus, 

 from the Neocomian ; but as the Moreseat specimens are too im- 

 perfect to speak of positively, we prefer to allow the above name to 

 remain. 



Echinocyphus dfficilis, Ag. — One very perfect example of this form 

 we have detected in these collections, and its agreement with Upper 

 Greensand specimens is so close, that it must be referred to this 

 species. This specimen supplies the most definite evidence we have 

 in the Moreseat collections of a form only recognized hitherto in 

 the Upper Greensand, or newer beds. 



A study of the list on pp. 252-3, with the distribution of the species, 

 will suffice to show that the Moreseat fossils represent more than 

 one of the horizons recognized in the southern parts of Great Britain ; 

 for while the Echinocyphus difficilis, Micrabacia coronula, Galerites 

 castanea, and Pectunculus umbonatus indicate an Upper Greensand 

 fauna, the Ammonites, Crioceras, Troclms pulcherrimus, Astarte striaio- 

 costata, Trigonia vectiana, Cardium Raulinianum, Area Raulini ?, 

 Plicatula placunea, and Lima Dupiniana point even more strongly 

 to a Lower Greensand age. As already pointed out, the rock in 

 which these fossils occur is so similar throughout — although some 

 pieces, it is true, are a little harder than others, and some are 

 stained with iron — that it is difficult to understand their being from 

 different beds ; it would seem, therefore, that the faunas which in 

 the south mark the distinct horizons of Lower Greensand, Gault, 

 and Upper Greensand, are, here in Aberdeenshire, included in one 

 bed of nearly unifoimi character throughout. However that may 

 eventually prove to be, it is clear that these Drift specimens have 

 been derived from beds where a large part of the Cretaceous series 

 of strata occurs ; not only Upper and Lower Chalk, and Upper 

 Greensand, as pointed out by Salter, but also beds of Lower Green- 

 sand or Speeton Clay age ; but nothing so old as the Belemnites 

 lateralis beds of Speeton has been detected. 



What relations these beds may have to the Lower Cretaceous of 

 Sweden, or to the Neocomians of Heligoland and North Germany, 

 which are now occupying the attention of Dr. Dames and Prof, 

 von Konen, it will be of interest to know ; but this must await 

 future investigation. 



Note. — Salter's list of "Fossils found in Chalk-flints from Aberdeenshire" 

 (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, vol. xiii, p. 84) includes some from Moreseat. 



