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
_Strata of Kyson in Suffolk._--At Kyson, a few miles east of Woodbridge, a
bed of Eocene clay, 12 feet thick, underlies the red crag. Beneath it is a
deposit of yellow and white sand, of considerable interest, in consequence
of many peculiar fossils contained in it. Its geological position is
probably the lowest part of the London clay proper. In this sand has been
found the first example of a fossil quadrumanous animal discovered in Great
Britain, namely, the teeth and part of a jaw, shown by Mr. Owen to belong
to a monkey of the genus _Macacus_ (see fig. 184.). The mammiferous
fossils, first met with in the same bed, were those of an opossum
(_Didelphys_) (see fig. 185.), and an insectivorous bat (fig. 186.),
together with many teeth of fishes of the shark family. Mr. Colchester in
1840 obtained other mammalian relics from Kyson, among which Mr. Owen has
recognized several teeth of the genus _Hyracotherium_, and the vertebrae of
a large serpent, probably a _Palaeophis_. As the remains both of the
_Hyracotherium_ and _Palaeophis_ were afterwards met with in the London
clay, as before remarked, these fossils confirmed the opinion previously
entertained, that the Kyson sand belongs to the Eocene period. The
_Macacus_, therefore, constitutes the first example of any quadrumanous
animal found in strata as old as the Eocene, or so far from the equator as
lat. 52 deg. N. It was not until after the year 1836 that the existence of any
fossil quadrumana was brought to light. Since that period they have been
found in France, India, and Brazil.
[Illustration: Fig. 185. Molar tooth and part of jaw of opossum.
From Kyson.[203-A]]
[Illustration: Fig. 186. Molars of insectivorous bats, twice nat. size.
From Kyson, Suffolk.]
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