464 
ELEMENTS OF GEOLOGY. 
derms, Trilobites, Corals, and other fossils already obtained 
from more ancient Silurian formations, Upper, Middle, and 
Lower, we may well ask whether any set of fossiliferous 
rocks newer in the series were ever studied with equal dili¬ 
gence, and over so vast an area, without yielding a single 
ichthyolite. Yet we must hesitate before we accept, even 
on such evidence, so sweeping a conclusion, as that the globe, 
for ages after it was inhabited by all the great classes of inver- 
tebrata, remained wholly untenanted by vertebrate animals. 
Dates of the Discovery of different Classes of Fossil Vertebrata; showing 
the gradual progress made in tracing them to rocks of higher antiquity. 
Year. Formations. Geographical Localities. 
"l798-Upper Eocene. 
1818—Lower Oolite.Stonesfield.^ 
1847—UpperTrias.Stuttgart.® 
1782-Upper Eocene.(GyP^nm of Mont- 
( martrey^ 
1839- Lower Eocene.f ® 
1854— “ “ ..... Woolwich Beds.® 
1855— “ “ . Meudon (Plastic Clay).’ 
1858- Chk,Aka„|'>««^; Uppeij Cambridge.® 
1863—Upper Oolite . Solenhofen.^ 
1710—Permian (or Zechstein) . . Thuringia.^® 
1844—Carboniferous.Saarbruck,nearTreves.^^ 
1709—Permian (or Kupferschiefer) . Thuringia. 
1793—Carboniferous (Mountain) no 
Limestone) .... .} 
1828—Devonian . . .Caithness. 
1840— Upper Ludlow.Ludlow."^ 
1859— Lower Ludlow ..... Leintwardine. 
1 George Cuvier, Bulletin Soc. Philom. xx. 
2 In 18l8, Cuvier, visiting the Museum of Oxford, decided on the mammalian char¬ 
acter of a jaw from Stoneslield. See also above, p. 347. 
3 Plien'inger, Prof. See above, p. 368. 
4 Cuvier, Ossemens Foss., Art. “Oiseaux.” 
® Owen, Prof., Geol. Trans., 2d series, vol. vi., p. 203,1839. 
! ® Upper part of the Woolwich beds. Prestwich, Quart. Geol. Jonrn., vol. x., p. 157. 
■ G’astornis Parisiensis. Owen, Quart. Geol. Journ., vol. xii., p. 204,1856. 
® Coprolitic bed, in the Upper Greensand. See above, p. 299. 
® The Archceopteryx macrura, Owen. See above, p. 388. 
The fossil monitor of Thuringia {Protorosaurus Speneri^Y, Meyer) was figured by 
Spener, of Berlin, in 1810. (Miscel. Berlin.) 
See above, p. 406. 
12 Memorabilia Saxonise Subterr., Leipsic, 1709. 
13 History of Rutherglen, by Rev. David Ure, 1793. 
14 Sedgwick and Murchison, Geol. Trans., 2d series, vol. iii., p. 141,1828. 
1® Sir R. Murchison. See above, p. 459. 
. 1® See p. 461. 
05s.—The evidence derived from foot-prints, though often to be relied on, is omitted 
in the above table, as being less exact than that founded on bones and teeth. 
In the preceding Table a few dates are set before the 
reader of the discovery of different classes of animals in 
ancient rocks, to enable him to perceive at a glance how 
Mammalia 
Aves. 
Eeptilia... 
1 
Pisces. 
