294 B. Biillen Neivton — Marine Fossils from Mekran Coast. 



sometimes attached parasitic forms of modern marine life, such as 

 Hippothoa, etc. When split open with a hammer these nodules are 

 invariably found to enclose a fossil of some kind, and most frequently 

 a shell. The condition of the fossil is nearly always that of 

 a natural cast exhibiting internal structures, whilst external features 

 are often preserved in the concavity of the counterpart of the nodule, 

 thus making it possible to obtain a fairly good restoration of the 

 original shell by pressing into it some artists' wax or gutta percha. 



A similar plan for obtaining structures was successfully adopted 

 by Professor Ray Lankester when studying the marine shells and 

 other organic remains found as casts in the celebrated sandstone 

 nodules of the Suffolk Crag, known as the ' Box-Stones ' (Quart. 

 Journ. Geol. Soc, 1870, vol. xxvi, p. 499). And here it may be 

 interesting to remark that the Suffolk ' Box-Stones ' of all the 

 fossiliferous nodules found in the different formations are perhaps 

 the most convenient for comparison with those from the Mekran 

 Coast, since they are most likely to be of an approximate geological 

 age. They may be collected on the beach at Felixstow, after being 

 washed out of the surrounding cliffs, where they occur in situ, or 

 they may be obtained from the ' Coprolite-diggings ' of the same 

 neighbourhood. Fossils are much more rarely found in them than 

 in the Mekran material, and many a nodule may be cracked open 

 before an organism is discovered ; the following genera have, how- 

 ever, been recognized : Isocardia, Cardita, Ghjcymeris ( = Pectun- 

 cuius), Conns, Cassidaria, Pyrida, Turritella, Volnta, Mastodon, etc. 



Among the shell-remains of the Mekran nodules are Cardiiim, 

 Dosinia, Mnctra, Area, Dolium, Tugurium, Neptnnea, and Lampusia ; 

 the genera Cardium and Tugurium being of the most frequent 

 occurrence. Besides these shells there is a Polyzoan encrusting 

 the spire of Neptunea belonging to the genus Membranipora, which 

 Mr. H. W. Burrows has kindly described for this paper. The 

 Crustacea, represented by a crab's carapace and a species of Balanus, 

 both of which are described by Dr. H. Woodward, F.R.S. ; but no 

 Echinoderms, Brachiopods, or Cephalopods were observed. 



A very modern facies characterizes such a fauna as is here 

 enumerated, the various genera being nearly all found in adjacent 

 seas at the present day ; the fauna also seems to indicate shore or 

 shallow- water conditions of existence. But there are certain specific 

 differences to be noted in this assemblage, which appear to suggest 

 a relationship with Mio-Pliocene forms of the Mediterranean area 

 and actual Indian Oceanic species. Moreover, Mr. Edgar Smith, of 

 the British Museum (Nat. Hist.), and Mr. Cosmo Melvill, after an 

 examination of this collection, are of opinion that the species are not 

 represented in modern seas, although showing generic aflSnities 

 with living mollusca. 



With regard to the origin of the Mekran nodules, Mr. Townsend, 

 the collector, seems to think that masses of the upper strata of the 

 Ormara Headland break away from time to time, and so falling upon 

 the beach become rolled and worn by the action of the sea; but it 

 is much more probable that the nodules occur somewhere in the cliff 



