The Medals of Creation, Volumes 1 and 2: First Lessons in Geology and the Study of Organic RemainsMantell, Gideon Algernon
Science
The Medals of Creation, Volumes 1 and 2: First Lessons in Geology and the Study of Organic Remains
Mantell, Gideon Algernon
Geology -- England -- Guidebooks; Paleontology
A remarkable fact, relating to some of the specimens from the Iguanodon
quarry, remains to be mentioned. Upon breaking off the projections,
to ascertain if any traces of the shells of the Pholades remained,
we discovered in several, near the apex, a univalve shell, a species
of _Nerita_. _Lign. 166, fig. 6_, represents a fragment of stone
with two of the casts, which have been broken, and in each, at _a_, a
univalve is imbedded. At _b_, the ligneous structure of the original
wood is visible. The only hypothesis that will account for the
appearance of these univalves in their present position, is that of
supposing that the Nerites crawled into the cavities made in the mass
of timber, after the shells of the Pholades had been removed; and that
the wood became imbedded in a sand-bank, and the univalves enclosed in
the cavities; the ligneous structure in a great measure perished, and
the stony casts of the perforations of the borers, with the imprisoned
univalves, remained. The Nerites, as shown in the example figured,
do not occupy any particular position in the tubes; one has the apex
towards the end of the cavity, and the other lies in a transverse
direction.[368]
[368] In a fragment of a perforated column, from Puzzuoli, in my
possession, by favour of Sir Woodbine Parish, there were numerous
living univalves in the cavities made and previously inhabited by the
lithodomi.
[Sidenote: TEREDO.]
Teredo. _Ly._ p. 24.--It will be convenient to notice in this place
another genus of boring shells, whose fossil remains are far more
abundant than those of the Pholas. The _Teredo navalis_, or Ship-worm,
which is the most vermiform of all the mollusca, forms tortuous
cylindrical hollows in wood; and in some climates commits the most
extensive injuries to ships, the piles of harbours, bridges, and other
submarine works formed of timber. A reference to the illustration given
by Sir C. Lyell will render detailed description unnecessary. The
_Teredo_ is furnished at one extremity with testaceous valves, by which
it bores its way into the wood, while from the surface of its soft body
a calcareous matter is secreted, which lines with a shelly covering
the hollows or channels formed by the animal in its progress. The
fossil species differ from the recent in the valves being united to the
calcareous tube. Wood perforated by _Teredines_, and occupied by their
shelly tubes, occurs in almost every locality of the London Clay. Those
specimens in which the wood is petrified, and the cavities of the tubes
are filled with calcareous spar of various colours, furnish beautiful
sections, when cut and polished (_Pict. Atlas_, pl. viii. _fig._ 8,
9). When the canal in the Regent's Park was being formed, large blocks
of perforated calcareous wood were discovered, having the ligneous
structure well preserved, and the tubes of the Teredines occupied by
yellow, grey, and brown spar, forming specimens of great beauty and
interest.
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