﻿52H DK. WHEELTON HIND ON THE PALEONTOLOGY [Aug. 1905, 



It is important to note in the Coal-Measures certain species 

 which are found in Carboniferous rocks of a much earlier age, 

 especially in the case of lamellibranchs, gasteropods, and brachiopods. 

 It is curious that, in the majority of these forms, changes in the 

 organism due to evolution cannot be demonstrated, and therefore 

 apparently the number of marine forms found, as yet, only in the 

 Coal-Measures is small. 



Of all the marine bands, that which occurs below the Gin- 

 Mine Coal contains the richest fauna, alike in the number of genera, 

 of species, and of individuals. Certain of the species which occurred 

 here were new to science ; others had not previously been described 

 from British rocks ; and the majority of species, if not identical, 

 have a very close affinity to forms which are known at much lower 

 horizons in the Carboniferous sequence. 



Palseontological Description. 

 Pisces. 



The fish-fauna of the Marine Band associated with the Gin-Mine 

 Coal is very peculiar, and has been the subject of two important 

 papers. One by Dr. A. Smith Woodward, on Listracanthus, 1 the 

 other by Mr. E. T. Newton on Edestus. 2 



The occurrence of Listracanihus had previously been noted by 

 Mr. H. Bolton from the roof of the Bullion Mine, Lower Coal- 

 Measures, and the Marine Band of the middle part of the Coal- 

 Measures, in the River Tame, at Dukinfleld. 3 



Species of Listracanthus have been found in the Culm-Measures of 

 Herborn 4 ; also in the Culm of Magdeburg, by WolterstorfT. 5 These 

 beds I regard as the homotaxial equivalents of the Pendleside Series 

 of the Midlands. Listracanihus has also been collected from beds, at 

 Clavier, near Dinant (Belgium), which contain the typical fauna of 

 the Tendleside Series. L. G. de Koninck has described a specimen, 

 under the name L. hystricc, from Castiaux, near Mons, Assise vi 6 ; 

 and Dr. X. Stainier quotes the genus from Argenteau, near Liege. 7 

 Both of these localities are situated on beds below the horizon 

 of the Lower Coal-Measures, and in both places Listracanthus is 

 associated with a marine fauna. We may therefore consider that 

 Listracanthus always had a marine habitat. Many of the fishes 

 associated with it in the bed below the Gin Mine are also found 

 with a non-marine fauna. 



1 Geol. Mag. 1903, p. 486. 



2 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. lx (1904) p. 1. 



3 Geol. Mag. 1896, p. 424. 



4 A. von Koenen, Neues Jahrb. 1879, p. 341. 



5 ' Das Untercarbon von Magdeburg ' p. 18. 



6 Ann. Mus. Roy. d'Hist. Nat. de Belg. vol. ii (1878) p. 75. 



7 'Materiaux pour la Flore & la Faune du Houiller de Belgique ' Ann. Soc. 

 geol. de Belg. vol. xix (1892) p. 348. 



