P. M. DUNCAN ON SOME FOSSIL REEF-BUILDING CORALS. 341 



37. 0)1 some Fossil Reef-building Corals from the Tertiary 

 Deposits of Tasmania. By Professor P. Martin Duncan, M.B. 

 Lond., E.R.S., &c, President. (Read May 10, 1876.) 



[Plate XXII.] 



A description of a very remarkable species of Dendrophyllia from 

 the Tertiary deposits of Table Cape, in North Tasmania, was read 

 before this Society on June 9, 1875*; and shortly afterwards I 

 received a parcel of other kinds of corals from the same locality, 

 accompanied by a request from the Royal Society of Tasmania that 

 I would undertake their examination. I was then made aware, 

 from an abstract of a paper read before the Royal Society of 

 Tasmania, that all these corals had been under the careful hands of 

 the Rev. Julian Woods, to whom the palaeontology of the Australian 

 province is so much indebted. 



The Rev. Mr. Woods gave his reasons for believing the Table- 

 Cape deposits to be of the same Lower Cainozoic age as that which 

 I had given them, and supported his opinions by references to the 

 similarity and identity of the species of Echinodermata, Mollusca, 

 and Corals found in them and in the Lower Cainozoic deposits of the 

 mainland. As my inferences were derived second-hand from Mr. 

 Woods, he clearly has the priority of having decided the geological 

 position of the Table-Cape beds. He stated that, after a comparison 

 of the Tasmanian and Australian specimens, he found in the deposits 

 of both countries such well-known forms as Hemipatagus Forbesi, 

 Woods & Dune, Cellepora gambierensis, Pectunculus laticostatus, Cu~ 

 cullcea concamerata, Dentalium HicJcsii, Trigonia semiundulata, Cor- 

 bula sulcata, Cypraia eximia, Voluta Hannafordii, Voluta antisca- 

 laris, Conotrochus M' Coyi, and a large Placotrochus deltoideus. This 

 is a fauna which is characteristic of the Muddy-creek series in 

 Hamilton, Victoria, and partly of the Mount-Gambier limestone, 

 deposits which are low down in the Australian Cainozoic series (Mio- 

 cene of some geologists). 



In noticing one of the corals the description of which forms part 

 of this communication, Mr. Woods considered it to belong to the 

 genus Isastrcea, explaining that it was new to science, and that its 

 presence indicated that there was evidence of a deeper sea and 

 warmer climate than now existed on the area. 



The examination of the coral in question and of some other spe- 

 cimens from the same locality, whilst it necessitates the rejection of 

 the generic nature of Mr. Woods's species and of its bathymetry, 

 quite confirms his opinion regarding the former climate of Tasmania. 



The specimens about to be described are included in the group of 

 compound Astraeida, called the Astraeaceae by Milne-Edwards and 

 Jules Haime, and belong to the genera Heliastrcea and Thamnastrcea. 



Heliastrcea, a large genus, culminated during the Miocene, and 



* Quart. Journ. Oreol. Soc. vol. xxxi. p. 673. 



