39 



MARINE BEDS IN THE COAL MEASURES 

 . NEAR DONCASTER. 



H. CULPIN. 

 Doncaster. 



A SINKING for coal at Brodsworth. about four miles north-west 

 of Doncaster, has given an excellent opportunity for the search 

 for the marine beds referred to in Mr. Walcot Gibson's paper 

 in the ' Naturalist ' for April, 1906, pp. 112-3. Four such beds 

 have been found, of which the top one, some 100 feet below the 

 Ackworth rock, is probabty the same as that mentioned by 

 Mr. Gibson in his allusion to ' Green's note on the presence of 

 Aviculopeden iPterinopecten) and Goniatites below the Ack- 

 worth rock.' As exposed at Brodsworth, this bed yielded 

 goniatites of which one was a well-preserved Glyphioceras sp., 

 showing the suture lines, Lingida mytiloides, Pterinopecten 

 papyraceus, Posidoniella Icevis and Nitcidana acuta. In it 

 were also fish remains and a few plants. 



The most important bed of the series occurred at 705 feet 

 above the Barnsley coal, and 219 feet above the Melton Field 

 coal. It consisted at the top of blue shales with fucoid mark- 

 ings, and with a soapy feel to the touch, Similar shales then 

 followed with large numbers of Lingula, below which came 

 harder shales of a greyish blue colour full of pectens, goniatites, 

 etc. At the base was a hard Umestone band. The whole of 

 this bed is so markedly different, both to the eye and the touch, 

 as also in its contents, from the^usual measures, that it should 

 form a good datum line in future borings and sinkings. The 

 fossils found in it included Chonetes laguessiana mut. 9., Orhicu- 

 loidea nitida, Lingula ^mytiloides, Syncyclonema carbonifemm, 

 Pterinopecten papyraceus, Ctenodonta Icevirostris , Posidoniella 

 sulcata, Myalina compressa, Nucula Icequalis, Nuculana acuta, 

 Euphemus sp, Pleuro nautilus costatus, Glyphioceras micronotum, 

 Glyphioceras reticulatum (?) , Dimorphoceras Gilbertsoni, Orthoceras 

 asciculare, Orthoceras Steinhaueri, Acanthodes, Elonichthys 

 Egertoni, Megalichthys Hibberti, d,nd Rhizodopsis sauroides. In 

 it there were also occasional traces of plants, among which 

 were Lepidodendron sp., Neuropteris heterophylla 3.nd N euro- 

 pteris cf. rarinervis. 



There was a further bed at 130 feet below the Melton Field 

 coal, and 352 feet above the Barnsley coal, but the only shells 



1908 February i. 



