208 
ELEMENTS OF GEOLOGY. 
mammalia are Mastodon arvernensis^ JElephas yneridionalis^ 
Rhinoceros etrusciis^ Ilippopotamus major^ and remains of the 
genera bear, hyaena, and felis, nearly all of which occur in 
the Cromer forest-bed (see p. 191). 
In the same upper strata are found, according to M. Gau- 
din, the leaves and cones of Glyptostrohus europmus^ a plant 
closely allied to G, heterophyllus^ now inhabiting the north 
of China and Japan. This conifer ^had a wide range in time, 
having been traced back to the Lower Miocene strata of 
Switzerland, and being common at (Eningen in the Upper 
Miocene, as we shall see in the sequel (p. 218). 
Older Pliocene of Italy.—Suhapennine Strata. —The Apen¬ 
nines, it is well known, are composed chiefly of Secondary 
or Mesozoic rocks, forming a chain which branches off from 
the Ligurian Alps and passes down the middle of the Italian 
peninsula. At the foot of these mountains, on the side both 
of the Adriatic and the Mediterranean, are found a series of 
tertiary strata, which form, for the most part, a line of low 
hills occupying the space between the older chain and the 
sea. Brocchi was the first Italian geologist who described 
this newer group in detail, giving it the name of the Subap- 
ennine. Though chiefly composed of Older Pliocene strata, 
it belongs, nevertheless, in part, both to older and newer 
members of the tertiary series. The strata, for example, of 
the Superga, near Turin, are Miocene; those of Asti and Par¬ 
ma Older Pliocene, as is the blue marl of Sienna; while the 
shells of the incumbent yellow sand of the same territory 
approach more nearly to the recent fauna of the Mediterra¬ 
nean, and may be I^ewer Pliocene. 
We have seen that most of the fossil shells of the Older 
Pliocene strata of Suffolk which are of recent, species are 
identical with testacea now living in British seas, yet some 
of them belong to Mediterranean species, and a few even of 
the genera are those of warmer climates. We might there¬ 
fore expect, in studying the fossils of corresponding age in 
countries bordering the Mediterranean, to find among them 
some species and genera of warmer latitudes. Accordingly, 
in the marls belonging to this period at Asti, Parma, Sienna, 
and parts of the Tuscan and Bom an territories, we observe 
the genera Conns^ Cyprma^ Stromhus^ Pyrula^ Mitra^ Fascio- 
laria^ Sigaretus^ Delphinula^ Ancillaria^ Oliva^ Terehellum^ 
Terehra^ Perna^ Plicatida^ and Corhis^ some characteristic of 
tropical seas, others represented by species more numerous 
or of larger size than those now proper to the Mediterranean, 
Older Pliocene Flora of Italy.—I have already alluded to 
the Newer Pliocene deposits of the Upper Yal d’Arno above 
