234 A LOWER-GREENSAND FOSSLLLFERO US BAND. [May I903. 



19. On a Fossiliferous Band at the Top of the Lower Greens and 

 near Leighton Buzzard (Bedfordshire). By George William 

 Lamplugh, Esq., F.G.S., and John Francis Walker, Esq., 

 M.A., F.L.S., F.G.S. (Read February 4th, 1903.) 



Part I. — General Description. 



Introduction. 



During an examination of the Lower Cretaceous outcrop in 

 Bedfordshire by one of the writers in June 1902, he was delighted 

 to find in the sands immediately below the base of the Gault-Clay, in 

 the large sand-pits at Shenley Hill, lh miles north-east of Leighton 

 Buzzard, a richly-fossiliferous horizon which does not appear to 

 have been hitherto noticed. Four separate visits were afterwards 

 made by him to the locality, for the purpose of studying the section 

 and collecting the fossils ; but as these did not serve to exhaust the 

 possibilities of the bed, the second author undertook to carry on 

 the investigation, and for this purpose spent ten days on the ground 

 in August. On the material thus jointly collected, along with 

 further supplies since received from the quarrymen, the palteonto- 

 logical results given in this paper are based, while for the strati- 

 graphical details of the sections, and for opinions expressed thereon, 

 the first-named author is mainly responsible. 



The nearest locality from which fossils have been previously 

 recorded in the Lower Greensand of this part of England, lies be- 

 tween Great and Little Brickhill, 4 miles to the northward of Shenley 

 Hill, where they were found abundantly in working a ' coprolite- 

 bed ' at the base of the Lower Greensand. The only other recorded 

 occurrence of marine Lower Cretaceous fossils in Bedfordshire is at 

 Potton, 19 miles to the north-eastward of Shenley Hill, where, in 

 the workings of a pebbly ' coprolite-bed ' which forms a band in the 

 Greensands at a little distance above the base, numerous organic 

 remains were discovered, but the majority were supposed to be 

 derived from the underlying Jurassic rocks. The new locality is 

 of especial interest in presenting the hitherto-unknown fauna of 

 the highest part of the sandy deposits of the district. This fauna 

 exhibits anomalous characters, which are without parallel in any 

 other bed known to occur below the Gault in England. Indeed, 

 if the stratigraphical evidence had been less definite, the fossil-band 

 would probably have been classed on palaeontological grounds with 

 the Upper Greensand. For this reason the occurrence of the fossils 

 is of more than local interest, and seems to deserve being brought 

 under the notice of the Geological Society. 



The lithological characters and stratigraphical relations of the 

 fossil-band will be first described ; and the palaeontological evidence 

 will be discussed afterwards. 



