318 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [April 24, 



few common to Asia and Europe. A knowledge of the wide distribu- 

 tion of identical forms and extension of old seas, under different 

 conditions, can only be established by the united labours of many in 

 the same field of investigation. India is now being well explored, 

 America equally so. Southern Africa is being gradually examined ; 

 and much of Victoria has been carefuUy surveyed ; yet we know 

 little of the real palaeontology of Australia, owing to the few pub- 

 lished detailed descriptions and figures of the fossil fauna of the 

 stratified rocks of the country. The labours, however, of the Rev. 

 "W. B. Clarke upon the spot, and of Professor Owen and Mr. Moore 

 England, have thrown some light upon the distribution of extinct 

 life in those rocks. 



At the request of Mr. Daintree, I have examined the series of 

 fossils brought home by him, and have selected those species capable 

 of description. 1 have described thirty-eight new forms, and recog- 

 nize ten others that are common to England and the colony ; it is 

 almost entirely amongst the Palaeozoic remains that this agreement 

 is found, and through the Coelenterata (or Actinozoa) and Brachio- 

 poda (which, perhaps, we should expect) rather than through the 

 higher groups. Amongst the Lamellibranchiata it can scarcely be 

 said that we possess any shell common to the two areas ; but a 

 variety of Panopcea {Mya) plicata. Sow., occurs ; and this with us is a 

 Lower and Upper Greensand and Gault species. One Ammonite, A. 

 Beudanti, D'Orb. (or a closely allied form), seems rather abundant in 

 the " Hughenden " Cretaceous beds ; this variety I have named A. 

 Mitchelli. The group Ligati is represented by one species from the 

 Mackinlay range ; it differs little from the French and English Upper 

 Greensand and Chalk forms. This, the A. Sutherlandi, mihi, is the 

 only species of the group at present recorded or known to occur in 

 Australia. We have also a doubtful Grioceras of considerable size, but 

 scarcely well enough preserved for description. No secondary or 

 Mesozoic Brachiopoda occur in Mr. Daintree's series, although Mr. 

 Moore described seven species from the Wollumbilla collection *. 

 Systematic search in situ over the area in rocks of deeper-sea ac- 

 cumulation may bring to light species of this widely spread group of 

 MoUusca. 



Only two Devonian, two Carboniferous, and one Cretaceous spe- 

 cies of Gasteropoda occur, or five in all. 



The Devonian and Carboniferous faunas number twenty-seven 

 species, nine being common to England and Queensland. The Cre- 

 taceous twenty-five, two of which are British. Eight other forms 

 occur, which I believe are of Oolitic age ; but their condition is such 

 that no true description can be given of them ; they are, however, 

 figured on Plate XXV. From the Hughenden Cretaceous beds 

 we have the caudal portion and scales of a large species of Aspido- 

 rhynchus, a genus which, so far as we know, occurs in England in the 

 Lias, Oxford Clay, and Purbeck beds. Associated with these fish- 

 remains there is, apparently, the bone of an Ichthyosaurus. 



* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxvi. 



