NODULE BEDS. 
13 
with an earthy green mineral; in other cases a cement of carbonate 
of iime fills all the interstices between the grains of sand and 
partly occupies the place of the originally calcareous fossils. 
The importance of the fauna included in the box^stones was first 
pointed out by Prof. Lankester, whose papers on the Nodule Bed 
and its contebts, already cited, contain frequent references to the 
mollusca associated with the vertebrate remains; his last note on 
the subject contains a list of the species obtained up to the year 
1870.* The following list of the mollusca identified up to the 
present time includes those found by Prof Lankester and a few 
others since obtained :— 
Mollusca from the Suffolk Box-Stones. 
Bulla, sp. 
Cassidaria bicatenata. 
Conus Dujardinii. 
Dentalium dentalis (= D. costatum). 
Ficula reticulata (= Pyrula acclinis). 
Nassa conglobata (some of the 
specimens belong to young 
Cassidaria, as Prof. Lankester 
has shown, bukone or two appear 
to be correctly determined). 
-— sp. 
Natica, 2 sp. 
Eingicula, sp. 
Trochus ziziphinus. 
-sp. 
Trophon, sp. 
Turritella, sp. 
Yoluta auris-leporis. 
-Lamberti. 
Abra, sp. 
Astarte, sp. (not A. sulcata). 
Cardium decorticatum. 
Cyprina islandica. 
-rustica. 
Clycimeris angusta. 
Isocardia Cor (and var. lunulata). 
Mactra, sp. 
Mya, sp. 
Panopsea Faujasii. 
Pecten opercularis. 
-sp. 
Pectunculus glycimeris. 
Tellina, sp. 
Yenus, sp. 
Of the 16 determined species from the box-stones all except 
two are well-known British Pliocene forms; the remaining two 
Yoluta auris-leporis and Conus Dujardinii both occur in Pliocene 
beds on the continent. No doubt the mollusca show a decidedly 
warm climate—perhaps warmer even than that indicated by the 
fauna of Lenham, but at the same time there is not a single 
characteristic Miocene shell in the list, though most of the species 
range downwards into Miocene beds. As far as the mollusca go 
the evidence points to the box-stone fauna as belonging distinctly 
to very early Pliocene times. 
The abundant remains of fish in the Nodule Bed are more 
difficult to deal with, for it seems to be quite impossible to 
separate by their mineralogical character or state of preservation 
the box-stone species from those derived from the London Clay. 
It may seem strange not to be able to separate Eocene from 
Pliocene specimens, but when we find thousands of teeth of 
Lamna elegans, in every state of preservation, from rolled 
fragments to perfectly unworn teeth, and find also that the 
species ranges through Eocene, Oligocene, and Miocene.formations, 
there is nothing to show that some of the Nodule Bed specimens 
Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xxvi. p. 493. 
