NOTICES OF RECENT DISCOVERIES. 
—— 
Discovery of a New Species of Plesiosaurus.—E. C. Hartsinck 
Day, Esq., F.G.S. (our local correspondent for Charmouth), has 
recently obtained the most perfect Plescosaurus ever discovered upon 
the Dorsetshire coast. It was found between Charmouth and Lyme 
Regis, in a bed of marl, intercalated between two of the uppermost 
beds of the Lower Lias Limestone. It comes, therefore, from about 
the middle of the zone of Ammonites Buckland. The specimen, 
13 ft. in length, exhibits the entire dorsal view of the skeleton, with 
very few bones displaced. With a large head is associated a beauti- 
fully-preserved lower jaw filled with long curved teeth ; the cervical 
vertebra exhibit well the characteristic pleurapophyses ; the dorsal 
vertebrz and the ribs are, as well as the other parts, brought out into 
strong relief, and even the pelvic bones of the under side are partly 
shown in sit# ; the tail, though less well preserved, is, as a whole, in 
position ; but the great perfection of the specimen lies in the com- 
pleteness of the four limbs or paddles, of which not only are nearly all 
the numerous bones preserved, but they are all, excepting a few of 
the ultimate small ones, perfectly undisturbed from their original 
arrangement and relative position. It is gratifying to learn that 
this magnificent Enaliosaurian relic makes an addition to our 
knowledge of the Liassic fauna, as it is a new species of the genus, 
differing in important points from those hitherto known. This 
specimen has now, we understand, been purchased by the authori- 
ties of the British Museum, and will shortly be described by Professor 
Owen. 
Organic Remains in the Laurentian Rocks of Canada.— Ex- 
aminations by the Geological Surveyors of Canada during the past 
year have furnished additional evidence that the oldest known stra- 
tified rocks, constituting the great Laurentian system, are divided 
into two unconformable groups —the ‘Labrador series’ and the 
‘Laurentian series,’ the former resting uncomformably upon the 
latter or the true Laurentian rocks. 
In 1852 there were discovered in the Laurentian limestone of the 
Ottawa an organic form resembling the coral Stromatocerium. Last 
year there were detected in the serpentine-limestone of Grenville, of 
true Laurentian age, an organism which Dr. Dawson describes as 
that of a Foraminifer growing in large sessile patches, after the manner 
of Carpenteria, but of much greater dimensions, and presenting 
minute points which reveal a structure resembling that of other 
foraminiferal forms, as for example Calcarina and Nummulina; and 
to which he has given the name of Hozodn Canadense.* 
Large portions of the Laurentian limestone appear to be made up 
of these organisms, mixed with other fragments, which suggest com- 
* Canad. Nat. and Geol., April 1864. 
