60 The Upper Cretaceous Deposits of Maryland 



of Maryland, the strata of New Jersey having afforded numerous repre- 

 sentatives of plants. 



The animal remains known only in New Jersey consist of the bones of a 

 plesiosaur and a few obscure mollusks of probably brackish-water habitat. 

 Teredo borings have occasionally been found in lignitized coniferous 

 wood. The fauna, however, does not afford sufficiently characteristic 

 forms to be of any aid in determining the correlation of the deposits. 



The flora of the Earitan formation embraces many types of plant life, 



including ferns, cycads, conifers, monocotyledons and dicotyledons. The 



most significant forms are the dicotyledonous plants which present a 



relatively modern aspect, a considerable advance being shown in this 



respect over the Patapsco flora. The silicified cycad trunks characteristic 



of the Patuxent formation have nowhere been observed. The fossil 



remains occur chiefly in the drab clays, the two localities furnishing the 



largest number of species in Maryland being located near the mouth of 



Back River and on Elk Neck, although much more highly fossiliferous 



localities have been found farther north in New Jersey. Among the 



characteristic species observed in Maryland are the following : 



Asplenium dicksonianum Heer 

 Aralia washingtoniana Berry 

 Aspidiophyllum trilobatum Lesquereux 

 Araliopsoides cretacea (Lesquereux) 

 Araliopsoides brevilooa Berry 

 Czekanowskia capillaris Newberry 

 Diospyros vera Berry 

 Fontainea grandifolia Newberry 

 Magnolia newberryi Berry 

 Platanus heerii Lesquereux 

 Protopltyllum multinerve Lesquereux 

 Protophyllum sterribergii Lesquereux 



The Earitan formation has been compared by Berry, 1 on the basis of 

 the plant remains, with the Dakota sandstone of the Western Interior 

 and with the Tuscaloosa formation of Alabama, which have a closely allied 

 flora, although the Maryland beds are considered by him to be somewhat 

 older. In terms of the European standard section the formation should 

 unquestionably be placed in the Cenomanian. 



1 Berry, E. W., Jour. Geol., vol. xviii, p. 258, 1910. 



