97 



MICRO-PALiEONTOriOGy OP THE NORTHERN 

 CARBONIPEROUS SHALES. 



By GEORGE R. VINE, 

 Attercliffe, Skeffield; Secretary of the British Association Co7iniiittee on Fossil Polyzoa. 



III. -THE OSTKACODA, MONTICULIPORA, AND MISCELLA- 

 NEOUS FOBMS: BEDESDALE SHALES, NORTHUMBERLAND. 



It appears to me to be far wiser to give as complete a list as possible 

 of the several micro-organisms found in these Northern Shales, rather 

 than to delay their publication till some future date. I do this for 

 two reasons: rst, the Entomostraca, though not being my speciality, 

 have had a large share of my attention, but chiefly the Palaeozoic and 

 recent brackish-water species ; in the 2nd place, I have found that in 

 every Carboniferous Limestone Shale bed that I have examined for 

 Polyzoa, there has always been a peculiar association of fossils, 

 Brachiopoda, Polyzoa, certain forms of Entomostraca, and Forami- 

 nifera. This association appears to me to be indicative, to some 

 extent, of ocean depths, and although we may not have as yet a 

 complete knowledge of oceanic depths in the past ages of the world's 

 history, yet every help that can be given ought to be given in the 

 interest of future as well as present science. 



In the chapter devoted to ' Materials for a Palaeontology of 

 Northumberland,' Professor G. A. Lebour (pp. 58-72, in his Outlines 

 of the Geology of Northumberland, 1878) gives a Hst (pp. 66-68) of 

 Fossils from the Ridsdale ironstone beds of Northumberland, and 

 in it he mentions, besides an encrusting Coral, four species of 

 Polyzoa? Hemitrypa hibernica and Polypora papillata M'Coy ; 

 Fenesiella fylebeia^ and F. sp. and Ceriopora sp.; but no mention is 

 made of Entomostraca or Foraminifera. Of the latter, however, a 

 separate list is furnished (p. 70) after Mr. H. B. Brady. In the 

 recent issue (Vol. 10, No. 2) of the Proceedings of the Berwickshire 

 Naturalists' Club, Professor T. Rupert Jones furnished a paper on 

 'Lower Carboniferous Entomostraca,' pp. 313-325, in which he 

 describes several new species, together with notes on the specimens 

 in the collection of the late Mr. George Tate. In this paper 

 Professor Jones refers to a former one published in the ' Transactions', 

 1864, pp. 83-89. Some of the species described in Professor 

 Jones' recent paper belong to the Tuedian and Bernicean beds, and, 

 as many interesting details are referred to in the paper, it may be well 

 to give the list as a preface to what will follow. 



OSTRACODA. 



TUEDIAN SPECIES— \2inoM5 localities. 



Macrocypris? Kirkbyana Jones. No. 3 of Notes. 



Dec. 1884. F 



