A LIST OF 



IRISH LIASSIC FORAMINIFERA, 



BY 



JOSEPH WRIGHT, F.G.S., F.R.G.S.I., 



Hon. Assoc, of the Belfast Nat. Hist, and Phil, Soc., &c., &>c. 



Mr. R. Tate, in his valuable paper on the Liassic fossils of Ireland, pub- 

 lished by tbe Club in 1870, records one species of foraminifera, Dcntalina 

 obllqua, from the locality of Ballintoy, County Antrim. This is, I believe, 

 the first, and, indeed, only notice we have of fossil Foraminifera having 

 been met with in any of our Irish rocks. 



Shortly after this paper appeared, Mr. W. Gray discovered two or 

 three other Foraminifera in the same beds. On hearing of these discoveries 

 I wsb led carefully to examine these shales at Ballintoy, in the hope of 

 bsing able to add moie kinds to the few already known from that station ; 

 and through the kindness of several members of the Club, who supplied 

 me liberally v/ith the stone, I am now able to give the names of no less 

 than 20 species. 



Excepting one spot on Island Magee, where Lingulina tenera has been 

 met with, the Ballintoy shale is as yet the only Lias known in Ireland in 

 which Foraminifera have been found. The shale at this place is singularly 

 favourable for yielding these lovely little organisms, for on the stone being 

 placed in water, it almost immediately falls down into a fine impalpable 



