Geological Society of London. 1-33 



Mr. Jenkins, who had been working on the fos»il mr)lluscaof Australia, had arrived 

 at the conclusion that at the time of the deposit of tlie beds mentioned by Dr. Duncan, 

 the climate had been warmer than at present. The shells presented the same strange 

 and abnormal features as the corals, in differing from otlier older and well-known 

 species merely in some minute detail. There was no point of contact between the 

 Australian and European faunas to afford a criterion of relative age, though there 

 were some points of similarity to be found in the Mediterranean area. 



Mr. Gwyn Jeffreys stated, as an instance of tlie singularities of the Australian 

 fauna, that RhynchoiwUa psittacea, essentially an arctic species, had occurred in the 

 tertiaries of Spain, in our Glacial deposits, and the Norwich Crag, and is now found 

 living in Australia. 



Dr. Duncan shortly replied to the various speakers, and was disinclined to limit the 

 occurrence of any forms of coral to particular temperatures. 



2. ■" Note on a new and undescribed Wealden Vertebra." By J. 

 W. Hulke, F.E.S., F.aS. 



The author in this note describes a very large Wealden vertebra 

 which he obtained last autumn at Brook, Isle of Wight, remarkable for 

 its great size, its extremely light structure, and the extraordinary de- 

 velopment of the processes connected with the neural arch. It con- 

 sists of a thin outer shell, enclosing a very open cancellated tissue, 

 having extremely large spaces, comparable with those of Pterosauria, 

 and surpassing those of the cancellous tissue in any of the known 

 larger Dinosaurs. A wedge and notch, similar in principle to the 

 ophidian zygosphene and zygantrum, but differently placed, are 

 superadded to the ordinary articular processes. A broad horizontal 

 platform stretches along the side of the arch from the transverse pro- 

 cess to the postzygapophysis. The neural spine is composite ; all 

 the outstanding parts are supported and strengthened by thin bony 

 plates. Only a small part of the centrum is preserved, so that the 

 form of this, and in particular of its articular faces, is not deter- 

 minable. The author notices, in conclusion, certain textural re- 

 semblances between the vertebra and a peculiar Streptospondylian 

 vertebra in the British Museum, from the Weald of the south-east of 

 England. 



Discussion. — The President remarked on the combination of strength and light- 

 ness in the hone, which in this respect was not unlike that of the vertebrae of the 

 neck of the ostrich. 



3. "Note on the Middle Lias m the North-east of Ireland." By 

 Kalph Tate, Esq., A.L.S., F.G.S. 



The author remarked that hitherto no higher member of the 

 Jurassic series than the Lower Lias has been detected in Ireland. 

 He stated that he had received from near Ballintoy some blocks of 

 a grey, marly, micaceous sandstone, containing an assemblage of 

 fossil forms, indicating that the rock from which they were derived 

 belonged to the lowest part of the Middle Lias. The origin of these 

 specimens, which were obtained " from cultivated fields and patches 

 of drift," was said to be still unknown : and the occurrence of Hip- 

 popodium ponderosum, associated with Middle-Lias species, as in the 

 island of Skye, coupled with the agreement in lithological composi- 

 tion between the Irish blocks and the Pabba shales, led him to 

 suggest the possibility that the former may have been transported 

 from the Hebrides by glacial action. 



