Echinides du Départemente de la Sarthe considérés au point de Vue zoologique et stratigraphique

Abstract

NOTHING can afford better evidence of the zeal and assiduity with which palæontology is now pursued than the fact mentioned by M. Cotteau in the preface to this work, that whereas M M. Agassiz and Desor, in their Catalogue raisonné of 1845, indicated the number of Echinidæ discovered in the department of Sarthe at forty-one, and D'Orbigny in his Prodrome Stratigra-phique at forty-four, the result of the joint labours of the authors, and other naturalists of the district, has raised the number to no less than two hundred and two. The discrimination, description, and illustration of the different species have been performed by M. Cotteau, whilst their stratigraphical arrangement and position have been accomplished by M. Triger. Some of the more remarkable forms discovered by them are the large Heterocidaris trigeri, with its peculiar arrangement of tubercles and its singular ambulacral pores, a species of which has recently been obtained by Mr. Wright from the inferior oolite of Yorkshire; the Metaporhinus sarthacensis, a curious and exceptional form representing in the Jurassic series the great family of Spatangidæ, which only make their appearance at the commencement of the cretaceous period; the Echinocyphus tenui striatus, which the authors are inclined to regard as the type of a new genus; the Cidaris vendocinensis, which presents such beauty of form and markings, with many others we have no space to particularise. The lithographic drawings are clearly drawn, and comprehend all the species discovered.

Echinides du Départemente de la Sarthe considérés au point de Vue zoologique et stratigraphique.

Par MM. Cotteau et Triger. Avec 65 planches de fossiles, dessinées et lithographiées d'après nature par MM. Levasseur et Humbert, 10 planches de coupes géologiques, et 2 tableaux. Williams and Norgate, 1855—1869.)