A Manual of Elementary Geology: or, The Ancient Changes of the Earth and its Inhabitants as Illustrated by Geological MonumentsLyell, Charles, Sir
Science
A Manual of Elementary Geology: or, The Ancient Changes of the Earth and its Inhabitants as Illustrated by Geological Monuments
Lyell, Charles, Sir
Geology
The occurrence of a species of _Lingula_ at Sutton is worthy of remark,
as these _Brachiopoda_ seem now confined to more equatorial latitudes,
and the same may be said still more decidedly of a species of _Pyrula_,
allied to _P. reticulata_. Whether, therefore, we may incline to the
belief that the mean annual temperature was higher or lower than now,
we may at least infer that the climate and geographical conditions were
by no means the same at the period of the Suffolk crag as those now
prevailing in the same region.
Of the echinoderms of the coralline crag about eleven species are known,
but some of these are in too fragmentary a condition to admit of exact
comparison. Of six which are the most perfect, Prof. E. Forbes has been
able to identify three with recent species: one of which, of the genus
_Echinus_, is British; a second, _Echinocyamus_, British and Mediterranean;
and a third, _Echinus monilis_, a Mediterranean species, also found fossil
in the faluns of Touraine.
One of the most interesting conclusions deduced from a careful comparison
of the shells of these British Older Pliocene strata and those now
inhabiting our seas, has been pointed out by Prof. E. Forbes. It appears
that, during the glacial period, a period intermediate, as we have seen,
between that of the crag and our own times, many shells, previously
established in the temperate zone, retreated southwards to avoid an
uncongenial climate. The Professor has given a list of fifty shells which
inhabited the British seas while the coralline and red crag were forming,
and which are wanting in the Pleistocene or glacial deposits. They must,
therefore, after their migration to the south, have made their way
northwards again. In corroboration of these views, it is stated that all
these fifty species occur fossil in the Newer Pliocene strata of Sicily,
Southern Italy, and the Grecian Archipelago, where they may have enjoyed,
during the era of floating icebergs, a climate resembling that now
prevailing in higher European latitudes.[166-A]
In the red crag at Felixstow, in Suffolk, Professor Henslow has found the
ear-bones of no less than four species of cetacea, which, according to Mr.
Owen, are the remains of true whales of the family _Balaenidae_. Mr. Wood is
of opinion that these cetacea may be of the age of the red crag, or if not
that they may be derived from the destruction of beds of coralline crag. I
agree with him that the supposition of their having been washed out of the
London clay, in which no _Balaenidae_ have yet been met with, is improbable.
Strata containing fossil shells, like those of the Suffolk crag, above
described, have been found at Antwerp, and on the banks of the Scheldt
below that city. In 1840 I observed a small patch of them near Valognes, in
Normandy; and there is also a deposit containing similar fossils at St.
George Bohon, and several places a few leagues to the S. of Carentan, in
Normandy; but they have never been traced farther southwards.
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