Abstract
LONDON Geological Society, June 22.—R. Etheridge, F.R.S., president, in the chair.—Thomas Hart and David William Jones, Coronel, Chili, South America, were elected Fellows of the Society.—The following communications were read:—Description of a new species of coral from the Middle Lias of Oxfordshire, by R. F. Tomes, F.G.S. The species of coral described in this paper was referred by the author to the genus Thamnastræa and the sub-genus Synastræa, under the name of Thamnastræa Walfordi, in honour of its discoverer, Mr. E. A. Walford. The specimen was from the Spinatus-beds of the Marlstone, at Aston-le-Walls, Oxfordshire. Like Thamnastræa Etheridgei, previously described by the author (Q. J. G. S. xxxiv. p. 190) from the Middle Lias of Oxfordshire, this species presents the same sub-generic characters as T. arachnoides of the coral rag of Steeple Ashton; and the author remarks upon the fact that the only species known from the English Lias resemble corallian rather than Inferior-Oolite forms.—Note on the occurrence of the remains of a Cetacean in the Lower Oligocene strata of the Hampshire basin, by Prof. J. W. Judd, F.R.S., Sec.G.S. With a note by Prof. H. G. Seeley, F.R.S., F.G.S. The author referred to the rarity of remains of marine mammalia in the Lower Tertiaries of Britain, the only recorded species being Zeuglodon Wanklyni, Seeley, from the Barton clay. The single specimen in his possession was obtained at Roydon, about a mile and a half north of Brockenhurst, where the beds exposed in the brickyard consist of sandy clays crowded with marine fossils, and resting upon green freshwater clays, with abundance of Unio Solandri belonging to the Headon series. The author briefly referred to the question of the horizon of these deposits, which he regards as belonging to the same great marine series as the beds of Brockenhurst and Lyndhurst, which he holds to be Tongrian or Lower Oligocene. The Cetacean vertebra obtained by Prof. Judd was stated by Prof. Seeley to be a caudal vertebra, probably the eighth, but not later than the twelfth, of a species belonging, or closely related to the genus Balænoptera, and especially approaching Balænoptera laticeps, a species of the North Sea which appears to range to Japan. Prof. Seeley regarded it as representing a new species, which he named Balænoptera Juddii.—Description of a peat-bed interstratified with the boulder-drift at Oldham, by G. H. Hollingworth, F.G.S. The author described a deposit of peat interstratified with boulder-drift, exposed in a railway-cutting at Rhodes Bant, Oldham. The depth of the section was only 14 feet, and it showed:—
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Societies and Academies . Nature 24, 278–280 (1881). https://doi.org/10.1038/024278b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/024278b0