RELATIONSHIPS OF THE AUSTRALIAN CAINOZOIC SV STEM. 
the time almost prophetic, but in reality were based on a knowledge 
of the guide fossils of both areas. It had yet to be proved whether 
the Lyellian method of molluscan percentages as a test of the exact 
age (or as in the case of antipodeal strata, of their homotaxial 
relationships) could be applied to the Cainozoic beds of this southern 
continent. 
A suggestive contribution bearing on the present subject is found 
in the Rev. J. E. Tenison Woods’ “ Pate ontological Evidence of 
Australian Tertiary Formations.”* * * § In this paper the author 
showed that a close relationship exists between the majority of our 
Tertiary fossils and those of the Miocene of other areas ; and although 
many of the fossil determinations given in that paper require some 
revision, the conclusions are based on good reasoning. He there 
says, | “ Speaking of the Corals generally, we have more affinities 
with Miocene forms than any other formation ; but a few genera 
are common to both Eocene and Miocene formations. We have 
no truly Eocene forms, such as Turbinolia, which are found in the 
Eocene beds both of Europe and America ; neither have we among 
the many Foraminifera such characteristic fossils as Nummulites ; 
but we have certain American genera which have seldom been found, 
as far as I am aware, above the Eocene.” With regard to his remark 
about the absence of Nummulites in Australia, Tenison Woods was 
the first to record our commonest nummulinoid form as Ampfris- 
tegina, a determination made for him by Prof. T. Rupert Jones. J 
Subsequently the genus Nummulites was recorded from our Cainozoics 
in error for Amphistegina, as will be shown in a separate section, 
and this has been a factor in the acceptance of the Eocene age of the 
Lower Muddy Creek and other related beds by certain authors. 
The corals and echinoids of Victoria were first systematically 
dealt with by Prof. M. Duncan, § and yielded that author no very 
decided evidence as to the age of our Cainozoic fossil series, when 
compared with the European faunas ; although Duncan rernarked|| 
that the southern Australian fossil deposits with madreporaria, 
polyzoa, echinodermata, and mollusca have “ a facies characteristic 
of all the European marine tertiary deposits above the Nummulitic.” 
Later on he stated^ that the aspect of certain genera of the echinoids 
“ gives a Nummulitic-of-Europe-and-Tndia facies to the fauna, whilst 
the cretaceous aspect is presented by Catopygus . . .” also noting 
other genera the names of which, as well as of the supposed 
Catopygus of Southern Australia (now Studeria), have since been 
changed, redeterminations showing that the forms have a Tertiary 
* Journ. Roy. Soc. N.S. Wales, vol. xi. ( I S77), 1878, pp. 11:1-128. 
f Loc. rit., p. 119. 
j J. E. T. Woods. — “On Some Tertiary Deposits in the Colony of Victoria, Australia.” Quart. 
Journ. Geol. Soo. Lond., vol. xxi., 1865, p. 391. 
§ Quart. Journ. Geol. Soe. Lond., vol. xxvi., 1870, pp. 284-318 ; and vol. xxxiii., 1877, 
pp. 42-73. 
|| Q.J.G.S., vol. xxvi., 1870, p. 317. 
Q.J.G.S., vol. xxxiii., 1877, p. 69. 
m 
