Notices of Memoirs — Opalized Shells, New South Wales. 425 



NOTICES OF HyLZEHVEOIIRS.. 



Opalized Shells from New South "Wales. 

 On some Molluscan Remains from the Opal Deposits (Upper 

 Cretaceous) oe New South Wales. By R. Bullen Newton, 

 F.G.S. Proc. Malac. Soc. London, vol. xi, pt. iv, pp. 217-35, 

 pi. vi, 1915. 



THE famous opal deposits of New South Wales, first referred to in 

 geological literature by M. W. Anderson in 1892 as of Upper 

 Cretaceous age and the probable equivalent of the Desert Sandstone 

 of Queensland, has yielded from time to time the remnants of an 

 interesting fauna and. flora in which original structures have been 

 replaced by opaline matter of rich and varied coloration. Further 

 writers on this subject include the" names of J. B. Jaquet, G. de V. 

 Gipps, R. Etheridge, jun., H. Woodward, Ralph Tate, G. Giirich, 

 A. S. Woodward, and F. Chapman. Some new material from White 

 Cliffs (N.S.W.) was recently obtained by Mr. Newton from a gem 

 merchant in Sydney, during a visit last year to Australia to attend 

 the meeting of the British Association, and he has made it the 

 opportunity of preparing a small memoir upon the palaeontology of 

 the deposits with special reference to specimens in the British 

 Museum (Geological and Mineral Departments) and in the private 

 collection of the Rev. F. St. J. Thackeray, of Mapledurham. 

 Including the new species described, the Pelecypoda now comprise 

 seventeen forms or species, whereas only two species of Gastropoda 

 and three Cephalopoda have as yet been recorded. The genus 

 Unio is 1'ecognized for the first time from these beds, three new 

 species being described, while two new species of Cyrenopsis are 

 also added to the fauna. Associated with these and other fresh- 

 water Mollusca are certain marine forms belonging to Fissilunula, 

 Inoceramus, Euspira, Actinocamax, etc., which indicate an estuarine 

 origin for the deposits. Mingled with these are fossils of other 

 groups such as Araucarioxylon, Isocrinus, Ceratodus, Cimoliosaurns, 

 Polyptychodon, and Dinosaurian remains. The author points out 

 an interesting resemblance which he has traced between this fauna 

 and that characterizing the uppermost Cretaceous beds of Canada, 

 particularly the Belly River Series of Alberta, which is also of 

 estuarine character, the inference being that the Australian opalized 

 deposits were probably laid down in similar late Cretaceous times. 



EBVIEWS. 



I. — C. Schuchert. Revision of Paleozoic Stelleroidea, with 



SPECIAL REFERENCE TO NoRTH AMERICAN AsTEROIDEA. United 



States National Museum, Bulletin 88, 302 pp., 38 plates. 1915. 

 n^HIS book is not what Professor Schuchert intended when he first 

 J_ began the work, but it will be most useful for all that. The 

 most original part is the description of the older Palaeozoic starfishes 



