240 CENSUS OF THE OLDER TERTIARY FAUNA OF AUSTRALIA. 



CENSUS OF THE FAUNA OF THE OLDER TERTIARY 



OF AUSTRALIA. 



By Professor Ralph Tate, F.G.S., F.L.S., &c. 



[Read before the Royal Society of N.S.W., October 3, 1888.] 



In 1878, Mr. R. Etheridge, Junr., published a very useful 

 compilation — ■" A Catalogue of Australian Fossils," but at that 

 date so very few species of the Older Tertiary Period were 

 diagnostically known that his enumeration very inadequately 

 represents its rich fauna. Up to that time no class or large group 

 had received much attention at the hands of the monographer, 

 save the corals and foraminifera, though a fair proportion of the 

 echinoicls had been described by Professors Laube and M. Duncan; 

 but in the past few years, the palliobranchs, lamellibranchs and 

 part of tiie gastropods have been elaborated by myself, and the 

 polyzoa by Mr. A. Waters ; whilst the Tasmanian fauna has been 

 fairly worked out by the Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, Mr. Ft. M. 

 Johnston and myself; the coral-fauna hasbeen largely supplemented 

 by the Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods ; and miscellaneous additions 

 have been made by Professor McCoy, the Rev. J. E. Tenison- 

 Woods and the writer. 



In most classes, a very large number of the actually known 

 species has been now diagnosed ; but the gastropods, which 

 constitute about one-half the fauna, are for the most part 

 undescribed. 



In the appended table are given the names of all the genera 

 known to occur in the Older Tertiary deposits, and the figures in 

 the column indicate the number of species represented by each 

 genus. The table is compiled from the sources of information 

 already alluded to, and largely supplemented by my collections 

 from the chief fossiliferous localities in South Australia., Victoria, 

 and Tasmania, most of which I have visited. In this connection 

 my thanks are due to Mr. R. M. Johnston for the gift and loan 

 of many Table Cape species, to Mr. J. Demi ant for additions to 

 my Muddy Creek collection, to Mr. Gregson for the gift of a large 

 series of Gippsland species, to the Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods for 

 a gift of type examjDles of the species described by him from 

 Muddy Creek in the Proceedings Linnean Society, New South 

 Wales, Vols. iii. and iv. To Sir James Hector and Professors 

 Haast and Hutton I am under obligation for an extensive suite of 

 species from the Tertiary deposits of New Zealand, which has been 



