308

On the Organic Remains of the Diluvium in Norfolk. Communicated by C. B. Rose, Esq.

HAVING, in a former communication, given a description of the diluvial covering of the county, with a list of the materials of which it is composed, I shall, in this division, present to the readers of this Journal an account of the organic remains collected therefrom.

As I possess many fossils from this deposit, at present unfigured by authors, I purpose, in the list of the testaceæ, confining myself almost entirely to those specimens which are identified with individuals figured in that splendid work, "The Mineral Conchology of Great Britain," by Messrs. Sowerby, and merely notice some species that remain undescribed by that indefatigable and meritorious family.

The organic remains of the diluvium admit of a division into those of animals inhumated at the period of the great catastrophe, and since mineralized; and those of animals enveloped at various periods, during the formation of the regular strata, and consequently anterior to that grand epoch; the former may be denominated diluvian remains, the latter ante-dilupian.

DILUVIAN REMAINS.

These consist of teeth, tusks, horns, vertebræ, and various other bones of the mastodon, elephant, hippopotamus, gigantic elk, and the enormous horned bison, the horse, the ox, and two or more species of deer; they occur in great abundance on the eastern coast, exposed by the action of the tidal waters upon the diluvium, and by the agency of springs; immense masses of the cliffs are thus detached from the main land, and left to crumble away upon the beach. I have not had an opportunity of examining a complete series of these interesting relics, therefore cannot enter into further details respecting them. The teeth and vertebræ of some of these animals are also found in the interior of the county; at Whitlingham, near Norwich, a tooth of the mastodon, figured in Smith's "Strata Identified;" it is deposited in the British Museum; a tooth of the Asiatic elephant, with some vertebræ, were discovered a few years since at Narford, near Swaffham; and several bones, supposed, from

their coarse texture to belong to a species of whale, have, at various times, been met with in a gravel-pit at Roydon, near Diss.

1. The anterior portion of a fish, with part of its head. From the elongated rhomboidal form of the scales, I presume it to be a specimen of the Dapedium politum, a species of a new fossil genus formed by Dr. Leach, for the reception of the fossil fish described and figured by Mr. De la Bèche, in Geol. Trans. vol. i., part first, N. S. page 45, plate 6, fig. 1.

2. A fragment of the armed fin-bone of a species of balistes. It is a tuberculated variety; a similar one is noticed by M. De la Bèche, in Geol. Trans. vol. i., N. S. page 43, as occuring in the lias at Lyme.

3. Small vertebræ of a species of squalus.

4. Part of the spinal column of a fish with the ribs attached. It consists of nine vertebræ, enveloped in the grey centre of a black flint; it is too imperfect to determine of what fish it is the remain.

5. A small lanceolate tooth of a species of squalus, imbedded in a flint.

6. Vertebræ of a species of esox; originally deposited in the crag, or upper marine formation.

Sauri.

1. Caudal vertebra of a crocodile, resembling that of Hornfleur.

2. Tooth of a species of crocodile.

3. Tooth of an ichthyosaurus, agreeing with those of I. communis. It forms one of the pebbles of a coarse sandstone breccia.

4. Tooth of a species of ichthyosaurus; imbedded in the bituminous shale of the kimmeridge or Oxford clay. This tooth does not resemble those of either of the three species described by the Rev. W. D. Conybeare in the Geol. Trans

actions.

5. Vertebræ of the ichthyosaurus, belonging to the anterior

cervical; anterior, middle, and posterior dorsal; lumbar; and caudal portions of the spine.

6. Plesiosaurus. A cervical vertebra, resembling that figured in Geol. Trans. vol. v. part 2, plate XLI. fig. 3.

7. Vertebræ from the middle dorsal, lumbar, and caudal portions of the spine of the plesiosaurus.

8. Bones apparently belonging to the paddles of the plesiosaurus.

Testacea.

Ammonites peramplus, biplex, decipiens, rotundus, mutabilis, sublævis, binus, excavatus, Birchii, Taylori, dentatus, Strangwaysi, annulatus, serratus, rotiformis, and some others not yet figured.

Ampullaria, a cast in calcareous sandstone, associated with a Pectunculus, Venus, and Avicula.

Arca, two or three species not yet figured.
Astarte lineata and planata.

Avicula costata, inequivalvis, and echinata.

Belemnite. The remains of this fossil are found in all parts of the county they appear to have been originally derived from the cornbrash, marly sandstone, green sandstone, and chalk strata. I possess one, showing the septa and siphunculus; and another, with some of its iridiscent internal pearly coat attached to it.

Cardium. Mineral Conchology, tab. XIV. middle figure. Cirrus, of an elliptical form, not produced by fracture. Comilaria, a trigonal species, in a boulder of calcareous sandstone, associated with trigonia clavellata.

Cucullæa (arca subacuta of Min. Conch., tab. XLIV. upper figure).

Dentalium incrassatum, in a septarium, with part of an ammonite.

Gryphæa incurva, obliquata, dilatata, and bullata.

Inoceramus, several species in chalk boulders, and casts in flint. The latter are very common in the light lands of the chalk district; and they frequently exhibit upon them casts of the workings of animalcular parasites in this shell, described by Parkinson, and also by the Rev. W. Conybeare, in Geol. Trans., vol. ii.

Lima, an elegant little species, not yet figured.
Lingula ovalis, with an ammonite and tellina.
Lutraria ambigua, in a boulder with

Gervillia aviculoides.

Modiola Hillani, cuneata, aspera, and some others, resembling parallela and elegans.

Mya literata or V-scripta, and two or more species undetermined.

Nautilus, a cast in flint of an oblique species.

Nucula trigonia, ovum, and claviformis; the latter imbedded in a septarium, with a rostellaria possessing two processes on its outer lip.

Ostrea deltoidea, carinata, and Marshii. The numerous species and varieties in this genus defy designation. I have, therefore, only noticed those, in my collection, that I can satisfactorily identify with Mr. Sowerby's figures.

Patella latissima. Mr. G. B. Sowerby, in his Work on the Genera of Shells, says, "The patella latissima and lævis of mineral conchology may possibly be the upper valves of orbicula."

Pecten corneus, orbicularis, arcuatus, lens, fibrosus, nitidus, lamellosus, cinctus, barbatus, vimineus, and vagans.

Perna maxillata. Sowerby's Genera of Shells, Perna, plate II., fig. 1. In a boulder, associated with pecten lens, ammonites excavatus, and astarte planata.

Pinna tetragona and affinis.

Plagiostoma yigantea, spinosa, Hoperi, and rigida.

Rostellaria, scalaria, serpula, and tellina, the species of which have not yet been determined.

Terebratula crumena, tetraedra, subrotunda, subundata, semiglobosa, octoplicata, plicatilis, obliqua, lata, ovoides; and there are found, in the diluvium, several species not yet -figured by Sowerby. One (in my collection) is the young of a spinous terebratula, figured, by the Rev. Joseph Townsend, in his Geological Researches, plate XIV. figs. 8 and 9.

Trigonia clavellata, alæformis, costata, and a very depressed -variety of the latter.

Trochus punctatus, and casts of trochi, are found in calca

reous sandstone boulders; but the small portion of shell attached is not sufficient to identify the species.

Turbo ornatus, and muricatus imbedded in a boulder with Turritella muricata. A pyritous cast of a turritella in calcareous sandstone, an imperfect shell in an oolitic nodule, and casts of others in sandstone, are all too imperfect to receive a specific name.

Venus. Casts of two or three species occur.

Unio Listeri, hybridus, crassissimus, concinnus, and a very laterally elongated species, not yet figured.

Echinida.

All the fossilized remains of this order, that I have met with in this county, were originally derived from the chalk strata. I have not seen a single specimen in the debris of any other stratum. They almost invariably occur as casts in flint—the shell destroyed. There are instances of casts entirely surrounded by the flint; fracture liberates the cast, and exhibits the impression of the exterior of the shell; occasionally the shell is preserved enveloped in flint; more rarely, the mineralized shells, filled with chalk or flint, are found in chalk boulders. I possess the following:

Cidaris mammillata, with several spines in contact, but not attached; in a chalk boulder. Cidaris papillata, and corollaris. The long cylindrical spines of cidaris mammillata, and the fusiform or cucumerine and clavated spines of cidaris papillata, are not unfrequently met with in chalk boulders, or their impressions on flint.

Echinocorys scutatus, casts in flint of both gibbous and depressed species or varieties. The same varieties of

1

Conulus albogalerus; and echinodiscus, scutella of Lamark, Spatangus cor marinum, ovum marinum (brissus), and casts of a species of this brissus, occur, with its dorsum singularly elevated at the commencement of the dorsal groove.

Stellerida.

Asterias semilunatus (pentagonaster semilunatus). Parkinson's Organic Remains, &c., vol. iii., tab. I. fig. 1. I possess a