340 Correlation of the Upper Cretaceous Formations 



the molluscan faunas of the Matawan and Monmouth, while they furnish 

 fewer elements for correlation with Europe, appear to indicate that the 

 Matawan is of Lower Senonian (Emscherian) age and that the Monmouth 

 is of Upper Senonian (Aturian) age. There is in this an apparent 

 agreement in the two lines of evidence. This is only apparent, however, 

 for the meager Magothy fauna found in the New Jersey area shows a 

 great resemblance to that of the succeeding Matawan, while in the South 

 Atlantic Coastal Plain a flora of a Magothy facies occurs in beds inter- 

 bedded with those carrying an invertebrate fauna of a Matawan facies. 

 Tn Texas the Woodbine sand carries a flora of a Magothy facies, while the 

 Eagle Ford formation intervenes between this horizon and that of the 

 Austin chalk carrying Mortoniceras, which is the chief form relied upon 

 by invertebrate paleontologists to characterize that horizon. The fact 

 that this genus ranges upward from the Lower Cretaceous and is found 

 in Europe and Asia as well as North America in faunas which have little 

 else in common might raise the question of its exact contemporaneity 

 throughout this great range. Moreover, if the Earitan is Cenomanian, 

 as seems established, the consideration of the Matawan as Lower Seno- 

 nian (Emscherian) involves the assumption that the Magothy also is 

 Lower Senonian (Emscherian) and totally disregards the evidence of 

 the flora of the Magothy and Black Creek formations, which contain a 

 number of characteristic Turonian forms. The stratigraphic evidence for 

 such a break between either the Earitan and Magothy or the Magothy and 

 Matawan is wanting. It would seem, when local workers are not in 

 agreement regarding the correlation of the faunas of the Westphalian 

 plain with those of the Belgian border, that intercontinental correlations 

 either on the evidence of the floras or of the faunas cannot with the facts 

 now available be considered conclusive. A somewhat middle ground as 

 possibly being more nearly in accord with the real situation is taken in the 

 appended table of correlation, which is to be regarded more as a tentative 

 suggestion than an established correlation, for which latter sufficient 

 evidence may never become available. 



