PREFATORY NOTICE 



OF 



BRITISH MESOZOIC MARSUPIALS. 



§ I. INTRODUCTION. 



Since 1839 1 there has not been further question of the occurrence of fossils of the 

 Mammalian Class in Mesozoic deposits. 



The number of confirmatory facts and the rapidity with which they have accumulated 

 are significant and encouraging. 



To two members of the University of Oxford Palaeontology owes the acquisition of 

 the first evidences from an Oolitic deposit of animals so high in the scale as the 

 Mammalia. In 1812 Prof. Buckland, D.D., F.R.S., and William John Broderip, 

 then an undergraduate, were in friendly relations as professor and pupil. Mr. Broderip 

 had early been initiated by his father, who had formed a fine collection of Natural History, 

 in the elements of that science, and to him, therefore, the lectures of Buckland had 

 a peculiar charm ; whilst the professor found in his pupil one to whose judgment he 

 frequently deferred in the determination of Invertebrate Fossils. Mr. Broderip's fine and 

 choice collection of shells was, in after times, purchased by the British Museum. The 

 history of the acquisition of the original Mesozoic Mammalian Fossils was recorded 

 by Mr. Broderip in 1828, as follows : — " Some years have elapsed since an ancient 

 stone-mason, living at Heddington, who used to collect for me, made his appearance in 

 my rooms at Oxford with two specimens of the lower jaws of mammiferous animals, 

 imbedded in Stonesfield slate, fresh from the quarry. One of the jaws was purchased by 



1 Grant (Prof. R. E.), " General View of the Characters and Distribution of Extinct Animals," in 

 ' Thomson's British Annual' for 1839. 



Ogilby (Vvm., F.G.S.), 'Proceedings of the Geological Society,' vol. iii, p. 21, December, 1838. 



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