OPPEL AND STJESS — KOSSEN 6EDS. 



Lias 



The Keuper of West Germany, the Marnes irisees of France, and 

 the New Red of England are sandy and muddy deposits not con- 

 taining organic remains sufficient (as are those of the Jurassic or 

 Cretaceous marine deposits) to establish the coevality of their respect- 

 ive subdivisions. The study of the vegetable remains in the Keuper 

 Sandstone does not seem to have led to any positive result on this 

 question ; nor do the few, and generally ill-preserved, remains of 

 Keuper shells, as hitherto described*, materially contribute to its 

 solution. The large Labyrinthodont saurians, whatever may be their 

 palseontological interest, are but seldom of essential use in compa- 

 rative stratigraphy. 



Recently the Suabian geologists have paid considerable attention 

 to certain fossiliferous sandstone-strata intercalated between the Lias 

 and the Keuper, and immediately connected with the Bone-bed, well- 

 known for the great number of vertebrate remains contained in it. 

 We shall now describe these sandstone-strata in some detail. 



The stratigraphical order of these beds in the environs of Esslingen 

 is as follows : — 



Clays with beds of limestone and sandstone. Zone of Ammonites 



angulatus e. 



I 1 foot of greyish-blue limestone 1 r/ r ^ 7 t • j 



1 foot >ZonQ 01 A. planorbis a, 



" 1 inches of bluish clay. 



8 inches of light-blue sandstone with remains of Vertebrata, to- 

 gether with Cardium Rheeticum, C. doacinum, Schizodus cloaci- 

 nus, Leda Deffneri, Avicula contorta, Mytilus minutus, Pecten 



Valoniensis, &c. (Bone-bed.) c. 



6 inches of light-grey micaceous clay with fragments of coal. 



6 feet of hard yeUow sandstones i. 



Keuper ...Red Keuper marl a. 



Near Niirtingen, 5 hours (about 12 EngUsh miles) south-east of 

 Stuttgart, the following series has been made out : — 



Beds of clay, Umestone, and sandstone. Zone of Ammonites 



angulatus e. 



1^ to 2 feet of grey limestones with iron-ochre. Zone of A. 



planorbis d. 



^4 inches of yellow clay. 

 1 inch to 2 inches of loose qaurtzose sands with traces of the 



Bone-bed c. 



'7 to 8 feet of non-fossUiferous sandstone. 

 3 feet of sandstone with casts of gastero- 

 pods {Acteonina, sp., Nerita, sp., &c.), 

 Anatina precursor, Cypricardia Suevica, 

 Neoschizodus posterns, Avicula contorta, 

 Mytilus minutus, Gervilliapr(BCursor,Lima, 



sp., &c b. 



The inferior portion without organic re- 

 mains. 

 Keuper ...Red Keuper marl a. 



Both sections show a certain number of constant horizons. The 

 zone of Ammonites Bucklandi and A. Conybeari (not mentioned 



* See Alberti, ' Monographie des Bunten-Sandsteins, Muschelkalks und Keupers.' 

 1834, p. 143 ; Murchison, * Geol. of Cheltenham,' 1845, p. 55 ; Goldfuss, * Petri- 

 facta Germanise,' &c. 



.2^ 







Lias 



o 



20 to 30 feet of fine- 

 grained, yellowish- 

 white sandstone, in 

 its upper portion in- ■{ 

 terspersed with ga- 

 lena and spheroids 

 of hard sandstone... 



b2 



