Evolution (Biology); Glacial epoch; Human beings -- Origin; Human evolution
COLUMN 4: PERCENTAGE OF RECENT.
Norwich Crag: 69: 12: 85%.
Red Crag: 130: 95: 57%.
Coralline Crag: 168: 159: 51%.
TABLE 12/4. RECENT SPECIES NOT LIVING NOW IN BRITISH SEAS.
COLUMN 1: NAME.
COLUMN 2: NUMBER OF NORTHERN.
COLUMN 3: NUMBER OF SOUTHERN.
Norwich Crag: 12: 0.
Red Crag: 8: 16.
Coralline Crag: 2: 27.
In the above list I have not included the shells of the glacial beds of
the Clyde and of several other British deposits of newer origin than the
Norwich Crag, in which nearly all--perhaps all--the species are Recent.
The land and freshwater shells, thirty-two in number, have also been
purposely omitted, as well as three species of London Clay shells,
suspected by Mr. Wood himself to be spurious.
By far the greater number of the living marine species included in these
tables are still inhabitants of the British seas; but even these differ
considerably in their relative abundance, some of the commonest of the
Crag shells being now extremely scarce; as, for example, Buccinopsis
Dalei; and others, rarely met with in a fossil state, being now very
common, as Murex erinaceus and Cardium echinatum.
The last table throws light on a marked alteration in the climate of
the three successive periods. It will be seen that in the Coralline
Crag there are twenty-seven southern shells, including twenty-six
Mediterranean, and one West Indian species (Erato Maugeriae). Of these
only thirteen occur in the Red Crag, associated with three new southern
species, while the whole of them disappear from the Norwich beds. On the
other hand, the Coralline Crag contains only two shells closely
related to arctic forms of the genera Admete and Limopsis. The Red Crag
contains, as stated in the table, eight northern species, all of which
recur in the Norwich Crag, with the addition of four others, also
inhabitants of the arctic regions; so that there is good evidence of
a continual refrigeration of climate during the Pliocene period in
Britain. The presence of these northern shells cannot be explained away
by supposing that they were inhabitants of the deep parts of the sea;
for some of them, such as Tellina calcarea and Astarte borealis, occur
plentifully, and sometimes, with the valves united by their ligament, in
company with other littoral shells, such as Mya arenaria and Littorina
rudis, and evidently not thrown up from deep water. Yet the northern
character of the Norwich Crag is not fully shown by simply saying that
it contains twelve northern species. It is the predominance of certain
genera and species, such as Tellina calcarea, Astarte borealis, Scalaria
groenlandica, and Fusus carinatus, which satisfies the mind of a
conchologist as to the arctic character of the Norwich Crag. In like
manner, it is the presence of such genera as Pyrula, Columbella,
Terebra, Cassidaria, Pholadomya, Lingula, Discina, and others which give
a southern aspect to the Coralline Crag shells.
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