Geological Society of London. 235 



ridge in the occipital region, the absence of sutures, the globular 

 form of the condyle, and some otJicr peculiarities, prevent the 

 animal to which this skull belonged from being rcicrred to any 

 known order of Kcptilos. The author compared this fragment of a 

 skull with that of a bird, and suggested the establishment of a new 

 order of fossil Keptilcs {Ornithocephala), closely related to Prof. 

 Huxley's OrnWioscelida. He proposed to refer his fossil to a new 

 genus, which he named StrutJdosaurus. 



2. " On the Discovery of Organic Kcmains in the Caribean Series 

 of Trinidad." By E. J. Lechmere Guppy, Esq., F.L.S., F.G.S. 



The author described the rocks of the " Caribean Group " as con- 

 sisting of gneiss, gneissose, talcose, and micaceous slates and crystal- 

 line and compact limestones, and remarked upon the probable dis- 

 tribution of rocks of the same series on the continent of South 

 America. In Trinidad the uppermost member of the series is a 

 compact dark blue limestone, which contains obscure but very abun- 

 dant fossils ; in the subjacent clay-slates and quartz rocks calcareous 

 strings and bands, containing more distinct traces of organisms, occur. 

 The author believed that he had detected an Eozoon (which he called 

 B. caribeum), a Favosites (named F. fenestralis), a Coral, and frag- 

 ments of Echinoderms. He considered it probable that the Caribean 

 Series was pre-Silurian. 



Discussion. — Dr. Carpenter, from the slight examination he had heen able to 

 make of the fossils, was unwilling to speak decidedly about thera. There was, how- 

 ever, no doubt of numerous organic remains occurring in the rocks, and among them 

 Berpuline shells and echinoderms. As to the supposed Eozoo7i, he had not been able 

 to recognize any of the characteristics of that fossil ; and by treating the Trinidad 

 specimens with acid, he found no traces of structure left, and yet there had not been 

 sufficient metaraorphism to destroy other organisms. In some dredgings from the 

 ^gean Sea he had found fragments of echinoderms and other organisms, in which a 

 siliceous deposit had replaced the original sarcode in the same manner as had oc- 

 curred in the Canadian Eozoon, thus proving the possibility of this form of substi- 

 tution, which had been warmly contested. 



Mr. Tate offered some suggestions as to the age of these beds, which were certainly 

 older than Neocomian. The Californian gold-bearing beds appear to be Jurassic, 

 Similar beds occurred in New Mexico, Guatemala, and were observed by him in 

 Nicaragua and Costa Eica. These present lithological and mineralogical affinities to 

 the Venezuelan and Trinitatian metamorphic series, and were conjectured to be of the 

 same age. 



3. " On the Palseontology of the Junction-beds of the Lower and 

 Middle Lias in Gloucestershire." By Ealph. Tate, Esq., A.L.S., 

 E.G.S. 



The object of this paper was to show that the attachment of the 

 zone of Ammonites raricostatus to the Lower Lias, and that of A. 

 Jamesom to the Middle Lias, harmonizes with the distribution of the 

 organic remains : 50 species were catalogued from the united zones 

 of A. oxynotus and A. raricostatus, 8 of which pass up into the 

 Middle Lias, whilst 13 occur in the lower horizons; 115 species were 

 enumerated as occurring in the zone of Ammonites Jamesoni, 60 of 

 which pass to higher zones, whilst 11 made their first appearance in 

 the Lower Lias ; the number of species common to the contiguous 

 zones being 14. 



