RELATIONSHIPS OF TIIE AUSTRALIAN CAINOZOIC SYSTEM. 
Miocene strata, and in Australia to a very limited horizon of a few 
feet in thickness in the Janjukian of Spring Creek, near Geelong. 
Until the Australian species, S. curta, Tate,* was described, this 
genus was represented by two species only, viz., S. bellardii, 
d’Orbigny, from the Miocene of Turin, f and S.hoernesi, von Koenen, 
from the Miocene of Dingden, Berssenbriick.j 
The remaining groups of the mollusc are not especially repre- 
sented in the Australian Tertiary by genera restricted to any 
particular horizons elsewhere ; but the Australian beds are rich in 
species of gasteropods, bivalves, and other invertebrates, related to 
these in the Tertiary faunas of the northern hemisphere, and to 
which reference will be made. 
Echinoidea. — The Australian Tertiary fauna is rich in echinoids ; 
and these furnish some interesting data in regard to closely related 
forms found in tin 1 northern hemisphere. When first authoritatively 
examined, our fossil sea-urchins were pronounced by Profs. P. M. 
Duncan and J. W. Gregory and others to have a decided 
Cretaceous aspect. This opinion has since been abandoned in 
consequence of the characters of the Australian species having 
been more clearly defined, showing them to be distinct from 
apparently related but older forms, as for example, Holaster 
(Cretaceous), and Duncaniaster (Miocene). Certain genera, as 
Cassidulus, Plesiolctmpas, and P re mister, are Eocene elsewhere. 
Echinoneus is a genus ranging from Miocene to Recent in other 
areas. It is represented in our faunas by E. dennanti, T. S. Hall, 
and is found in the Batesford limestone associated with a Miocene 
foraminifer, Lepidocyclina. Clypeaster, although unrestricted, attains 
its maximum development in the Miocene faunas, as at Malta and 
the south of France. Linthia has a range from the Cretaceous to 
Recent, but is typically a Miocene form. It is represented by 
several species in our Janjukian series ; L. antiamtralis, Tate, 
occurs at Curlewis in beds of that age, whilst L. mooraboolensis, 
Pritchard, is found in the Batesford limestone associated with 
Miocene foraminifera, as Lepidocyclina marginata and L. tournoueri. 
Another unrestricted genus but typically Miocene, is Schizaster, 
and one of its species, S. sphenoides, T. S. Hall, from the 
Barwonian of the Sherbrooke River, is almost identical with S. 
scillae, Desmoulins, a typical Miocene form in Europe. 
Foraminifera. — The general facies of the foraminifera from 
Balcombian strata is that of the Lower Miocene fauna, with a 
tendency to the Oligocene : but no nummulites are present, as 
in typical Oligocene strata elsewhere. The Janjukian series, by 
its included species of Lepidocyclina, Cycloclypeus and Aniphistegina, 
* Proo. Roy. Soc. N.S. Wales, vol. xxvii., 1801, p. 170, pi. x., figs. 1, 1 ft, b. 
f Ann. Sei. Nat. 1842, vol. xvii., p. 262, pi. xi. See also Micheiotti, Foss. Terr. Miocenes, 
Ital. , 1847, p. .'540, pi. xv. , fig. 12. 
J Zeitschr. <1. dcutsch. geol. Goscllsch., vol. xvii., 1863, p. 428. Palseontographica, vol. 
xvi., pt. 3, 1867, p. 145, pi. xiv., figs. 6 a-h. 
