190 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



r a n d e i were not found, while Megalanteris ovalis and 

 Spirifer arenosus were questionably identified from a few 

 fragments. In northwestern New Jersey Weller^ notes tTie presence 

 of Hipparionyx proximus but it is exceedingly rare and 

 abnormal in its small size ; Spirifer arenosus is one of the 

 rarest shells of the New Jersey Oriskany of that region, while 

 Camarotoechia barrandei is questionably present. 



Instead of deriving an argument in favor of Helderberg-Oriskany 

 transition beds from the practical nonoccurrence of the very typical 

 larger shells of the normal Oriskany, and from the commingling of 

 Helderbergian and Oriskanian species, it is believed with Clarke^ 

 that these beds which are stratigraphically the equivalent of the 

 Oriskany, represent the calcareous (deep water) facies of the shallow 

 water original Oriskany. Just as at present much of the older life, 

 geologically considered, is found in the deeper portions of the sea,^ 

 so here the Helderbergian types persisted in the deeper water; not 

 being able, evidently, to compete with the newer Oriskany fauna, 

 they found safety in the less favorable localities, just as the In- 

 sectivores among mammals have persisted to the present, notwith- 

 standing their low development, because, added to a maintenance 

 of small size, they have become nocturnal in habit and in many 

 ways have adapted themselves to the less desirable localities. 



Large size is usually correlated with an abundance of food. In 

 the sea the more abundant food supply is in comparatively shallow 

 waters. It is here that marine vegetation flourishes, on which all 

 sea animals primarily depend for food; it is here also that river- 

 borne detritus, which contains a greater or less amount of food, is 



^Geol. Sur. N. J. 1902. 3:341-64. 



^Oriskany Fauna of Becraft Mountain. N. Y. State Mus. Mem. 3, p. 72. 



^Alexander Agassiz discusses this point quite thoroughly in his work, the 

 Three Cruises of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey Steamer Blake, v. i, 

 from which the following conclusions are quoted : 



" The abyssal fauna has descended from the littoral and other shallow 

 regions, to be acclimatized at great depths." [p. 155] 



" All the evidence thus far tends to show that the deep sea fauna origi- 

 nated at the close of the Paleozoic times:" [p. 151] 



After noting that a large number of antique types occur everywhere, he 

 continues, " We can only say that in the deep water fauna a relatively larger 

 number of such antique forms have been found than elsewhere." [p. 156] 



