TRANSLATIONS AND NOTICES 



OF 



GEOLOGICAL MEMOIRS. 



On the Brachiopoda of the Kossen Strata in the Tyrol. By 

 Edward Suess, Assistant in the I. R. Museum of Mineralogy. 



[Denkschrift. Kais. Akad. Wissensch. Mat. Nat. CI. vol. vii. part 2, pp. 29-65, 



with 4 lith. plates*.] 



My object in this Memoir, which investigates the mode of appear- 

 ance of a special animal group in certain strata of our mountain 

 ranges, is firstly to make a palseontological comparison and paral- 

 lelism between these strata and foreign localities, — then to describe 

 the peculiar forms of Brachiopods that are met with in these par- 

 ticular deposits. 



The generality of our public, especially the palaeontologists, are 

 but imperfectly aware of the geological constitution of our Alps. 

 The strata called here ^'inferior lias'* are in many points very 

 different from their homonyms in England or Suabia. 



I think the explanation of the term "Koessen Strata " will be the 

 best introduction to this Memoir. Although this term is adopted 

 by the generality of our Austrian geologists, and notwithstanding we 

 may in a short time expect to see these strata and their relations 

 illustrated by our excellent geologist, Fr. von Hauerf, it will not be 

 out of place here to give a general view of the geographical exten- 

 sion of these strata and to explain the evidence of this group being 

 a mem])er of the inferior lias and not of the muschelkalk. We 

 may assert these conclusions to be, in the first place, due to palseonto- 

 logical researches ; and, their results having been confirmed by recent 

 geognostical investigations, the group may be regarded as occupying 

 a well-determined position in the geologic series. 



When Austrian geologists began to give names to peculiar strata in 

 order to establish a terminology independent of the changes or con- 

 flicts of theoretical views, the name of *' Koessen Strata " was applied 

 to black or dark-grey limestones, often marly or interstratified with 



* See also * Sitzungs-berichte d. mat. nat. Classe d. Kais. Akad. d. Wiss.,' 

 March 1853, vol. x. p. 283; Escher von der Lith, on the Vorarlberg, Mem. Soc. 

 Helv. vol. xiii., and Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. No. 42, Miscell. p. 16 ; F. von Hauer, 

 on the Hallstatt Cephalopoda, ibid. p. 22 ; M. Homes on the Sandling fossils, 

 ibid. p. 23. 



t See Jahrb. K. K. Geol. Reichsanst. 1853, pp. 715, &c. 

 VOL. XI. PART II. D 



