P. MARTIN DUNCAN ON SOME TASMANIAN FOSSIL CORALS. 67 i 



50. On some Fossil Corals from the Tasmanian Tertiary Deposits. 

 By Professor P. Martin Duncan, M.B., F.K.S., V.-P. Geol. 

 Soc, &c. (Eead June 9, 1875.) 



[Plate XXXVIII. c] 



I have lately received some specimens of fossil corals from the 

 Royal Society of Tasmania, which were collected from the Tertiary 

 deposits of Table Cape, North Tasmania. They are interesting forms ; 

 for some of them belong to a new section of the well-known genns 

 Dendrophyllia ; and one other specimen must be classified with reef^- 

 building corals. The geological horizon of the Tertiaries in which 

 the corals were found can fortunately be decided ; for they are asso- 

 ciated with a very characteristic coral of the group of beds which I 

 have suggested should be classified as Lower Cainozoic, so far as 

 Australia is concerned. 



The specimens which 1 refer to the genus Dendrophyllia are very 

 remarkable. They have a fully developed wall-like epitheca, such 

 as is not possessed by any other species, fossil or recent*. In all 

 other respects they are essentially Dendrophyllian in their characters. 

 This very perfect epitheca, acting as it does as a wall or theca, or 

 perfectly or organically merged as it is into the wall, recalls the 

 thin epitheca-like wall of many Palaeozoic simple corals. 



The genus belongs to the Madreporaria Perforata, and is closely 

 allied to Balanophyllia ; this last, however, is a simple form, whilst 

 the first branches out. Nevertheless, although many Balanophyllice 

 have an epitheca, it is only slightly visible in a few Dendrophyllice ; 

 but its presence in the allied genus renders the association of the 

 new species with the branching forms very reasonable. 



The diagnosis of the genus Dendrophyllia is as follows : — 

 " Corallum compound, and usually dendroid ; corallites more or less 

 cylindrical and produced by gemmation. The calice is subcircular, 

 and the fossa is deep. The columella is more or less well developed ; 

 and the septa are thin, close, and unite separately or in groups with 

 their neighbours. The costse are formed by a series of granules, and 

 are more distinct at the base than elsewhere " f . 



It is now proposed to amend this diagnosis by adding — An epi- 

 theca may be present, more or less replacing the wall. 



Dendrophyllia epithecata, sp. nov. PI. XXXVIII. c. figs. 1, 2. 



The corallum has stout, erect, short, branch-like processes, which 

 do not give out secondary buds. The corallites are slightly curved, 

 subcylindrical, and broader above than below. The epitheca is fully 



* Pourtales has described two recent Dendrophyllice from the West Indies 

 which have a slight epitheca. Illust. Cat. Mus. Comp. Zool. Harvard, no. iv. 

 p. 45. 



t Abstracted and modified from Edwards & Haime. Hist. Nat. des Coral- 

 liaires, vol. iii. 



