588 



DISCOVERY OF FOSSIL VERTEBRATA. [Cn. XXVIL 



moment can be regarded as fixing the date of the first introduction 

 of any one class of beings upon the earth. 



Dates of the Discovery of different Classes of Fossil Vertebrata ; 

 showing the gradual Progress made in tracing them to Rocks of 

 higher antiquity. * 





Tear. 



Formations. 



Geographical Localities. 





' 1798. 



Upper Eocene. 



Paris (Gypsum of Mont- 



Mammalia. •< 



1818. 



Lower Oolite. 



martre). 1 

 Stonesfield. 2 





1847. 



Upper Trias. 



Stuttgart. 3 





> 1782. 



Upper Eocene. 



Paris (Gypsum of Mont- 

 martre). 4 





1839. 



Lower Eocene. 



Isle of Sheppey (London 



Avgs. -< 







Clay). 5 





1854. 



" " 



Woolwich Beds. 6 





1855. 



u u 



Meudon (Plastic Clay). 7 





1858. 



Upper Greensand. 



Cambridge. 8 





1863. 



Upper Oolite. 



Solenhofen. 9 



Reptilia. 



1710. 



Permian (or Zeclistein). 



Thuringia. 10 



1844. 



Carboniferous. 



. Saarbruck, near Treves. 11 





' 1709. 



Permian (or Kupfer-Schiefer). 



Thuringia. 12 





1793. 



Carboniferous (Mountain Lime- Glasgow. 13 



"PlQPPQ x 





stone). 





i lOl/CD» * 



1828. 



Devonian. 



Caithness. 14 ■ 





1840. 



Upper Ludlow. 



Ludlow. 15 





1859. 



Lower Ludlow. 



Leintwardine. 16 



1 George Cuvier. Bulletin Soc. Philom., xx. Scattered bones had been found 

 in the gypsum some years before ; but they were determined osteologically, and 

 their true geological position was assigned to them in this memoir. 



2 . In 1818, Cuvier, visiting the Museum of Oxford, decided on the mammalian 

 character of a jaw from Stonesfield. See also above, p. 408. 

 . 3 Plieninger, Prof. See above, p. 432. 



4 M. Darcet discovered, and Lamanon figured, as a fossil bird, some remains 

 from Montmartre, afterwards recognized as such by Cuvier (Ossemens Foss., Art. 

 " Oiseaux"). 



5 Owen, Prof., Geol. Trans., Second Ser., vol. vi. p. 203, 1839. The fossil bird dis- 

 covered in the same year in the slates of Glaris in the Alps, and at first referred to 

 the chalk, is now supposed to belong to the Nummulitic beds, and may therefore 

 be of newer date than the Sheppey Clay. 



6 A bird's bone is also recorded by Mr. Prestwich as having been found by M. 

 de la Condamine in the Upper part of the Woolwich beds. (Quart. Geol. Journ., 

 vol. x. p. 157.) 



7 Early in 1855 the tibia and femur of a large bird equalling at least the ostrich 

 in size were found at Meudon near Paris, at the base of the Plastic Clay. This 

 bird, to which the name of Gastornis JParisiensis has been assigned, appears, from 

 the Memoirs of MM. Hebert, Lartet, and Owen, to belong to an extinct genus. 

 Professor Owen refers it to the class of wading land-birds rather than to an aquatic 

 species. (Quart. Geol. Journ., vol. xii. p. 204, 1856.) 



8 Mr. Louis Barrett found many parts of the skeleton of a bird of the gull tribe 

 in the coprolitic bed, in the Upper Greensand (see above, p. 332). 



9 The Archceopteryz macrura, Owen, was determined to be a bird by Owen 

 in 1863. It occurred in the lithographic stone of Solenhofen, in which a single 

 feather, probably of the same bird, had previously been found (see above, p. 

 396). 



