The Project Gutenberg eBook ofAustralasian Fossils: A Students' Manual of PalaeontologyThis ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.Title: Australasian Fossils: A Students' Manual of PalaeontologyAuthor: Frederick ChapmanAuthor of introduction, etc.: Ernest Willington SkeatsRelease date: March 16, 2019 [eBook #59074]Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by MFR, Tom Cosmas and the Online DistributedProofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file wasproduced from images generously made available by TheInternet Archive)*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AUSTRALASIAN FOSSILS: A STUDENTS' MANUAL OF PALAEONTOLOGY ***
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.
Title: Australasian Fossils: A Students' Manual of PalaeontologyAuthor: Frederick ChapmanAuthor of introduction, etc.: Ernest Willington SkeatsRelease date: March 16, 2019 [eBook #59074]Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by MFR, Tom Cosmas and the Online DistributedProofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file wasproduced from images generously made available by TheInternet Archive)
Title: Australasian Fossils: A Students' Manual of Palaeontology
Author: Frederick ChapmanAuthor of introduction, etc.: Ernest Willington Skeats
Author: Frederick Chapman
Author of introduction, etc.: Ernest Willington Skeats
Release date: March 16, 2019 [eBook #59074]
Language: English
Credits: Produced by MFR, Tom Cosmas and the Online DistributedProofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file wasproduced from images generously made available by TheInternet Archive)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AUSTRALASIAN FOSSILS: A STUDENTS' MANUAL OF PALAEONTOLOGY ***
BY THE SAME AUTHOR.The ForaminiferaAn Introduction to the Study of the ProtozoabyFREDERICK CHAPMAN, A.L.S., F.R.M.S.This book has been written with a view ofmeeting a demand which has arisen for a conciseaccount of the Foraminifera, suited to therequirements of the student of Natural Historyand Palaeontology.With 14 plates and 42 illustrations in the Text.DEMY 8vo. CLOTH, 10s. 6d.
BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
The Foraminifera
An Introduction to the Study of the Protozoa
by
FREDERICK CHAPMAN, A.L.S., F.R.M.S.
This book has been written with a view ofmeeting a demand which has arisen for a conciseaccount of the Foraminifera, suited to therequirements of the student of Natural Historyand Palaeontology.
With 14 plates and 42 illustrations in the Text.
DEMY 8vo. CLOTH, 10s. 6d.
The Keystone Printing Co., 552-4 Lonsdale St., Melb.
A FOSSIL CRINOID(Helicocrinus plumosus), about5/6nat. size,in Silurian Mudstone, Brunswick, Victoria.(Spec. in Nat. Mus., Melbourne).
A FOSSIL CRINOID(Helicocrinus plumosus), about5/6nat. size,in Silurian Mudstone, Brunswick, Victoria.
(Spec. in Nat. Mus., Melbourne).
Australasian FossilsA Students’ Manual of PalaeontologyBy FREDERICK CHAPMAN,Palaeontologist to the National Museum, Melbourne.Formerly Assistant in the Geological Department of the Royal College of Science, London.Assoc. Linnean Soc. [Lond.], F.R.M.S., etc.Author of “The Foraminifera,” “A Monograph of the Silurian Bivalved Mollusca of Victoria,” “New or Little-known Victorian Fossils in the National Museum,” etc.With an Introduction byPROFESSOR E. W. SKEATS, D.Sc., F.G.S.GEORGE ROBERTSON & COMPANY PROPY. LTD.,Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane and London.1914.
A Students’ Manual of Palaeontology
Palaeontologist to the National Museum, Melbourne.
Formerly Assistant in the Geological Department of the Royal College of Science, London.
Assoc. Linnean Soc. [Lond.], F.R.M.S., etc.
Author of “The Foraminifera,” “A Monograph of the Silurian Bivalved Mollusca of Victoria,” “New or Little-known Victorian Fossils in the National Museum,” etc.
With an Introduction by
PROFESSOR E. W. SKEATS, D.Sc., F.G.S.
GEORGE ROBERTSON & COMPANY PROPY. LTD.,
Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane and London.1914.
ToPROFESSOR JOHN WESLEY JUDDthis work is dedicated as aslight tribute of esteem, andin grateful acknowledgementof kindly help and encouragementthrough many years.
T
The more important discoveries of fossils in the southern hemisphere have received, as a rule, very meagre notice in many of the text-books of Geology and Palaeontology published in England, Germany and America, and used by Australasian students. It is thought, therefore, that the time has arrived when an attempt should be made to collect the main facts bearing upon this subject, in order to present them from anAustralasianstandpoint. With this in view, references to fossils occurring in the northern hemisphere are subordinated, seeing that these may be easily obtained on reference to the accepted text-books in general use.
The present work does not presume to furnish a complete record of Australasian palaeontology, since that would mean the production of a much more extensive and costly volume. Sufficient information is here given, however, to form a groundwork for the student of this section of natural science, and a guide to the collector of these “medals of creation.”
The systematic portion of this book has been arranged primarily from the biological side, since Palaeontology is the “study of ancient life.” Taking each life-group, therefore, from the lowest to the highest types, all the divisions represented by fossils are dealt with in turn, beginning with their occurrence in the oldest rocks and ending with those in the newest strata.
If a commendation of the study of fossils, apart from its scientific utility, were needed, it could bepointed out that palaeontology as a branch of geology is,par excellence, an open-air study: and since it requires as handmaids all the sister sciences, is a subject of far-reaching interest. Microscopy and photography are of immense value in certain branches of fossil research, the former in the examination of the minute forms of mollusca, foraminifera and ostracoda, the latter in the exact portraiture of specimens too intricate to copy with the brush, or too evanescent to long retain, when out of their matrix, their clean fresh surfaces. With geology or palaeontology as an objective, a country walk may be a source of much enjoyment to its students, for “in their hand is Nature like an open book”; and the specimens collected on a summer excursion may be closely and profitably studied in the spare time of the winter recess.
The author sincerely trusts that students may share the same pleasure which he has derived from the study of these relics of past life; and that the present attempt to show their relationship both in geological time and biological organisation, may be the means of inducing many to make further advances in this fascinating subject.
In the production of this work several friends and collaborators have materially assisted, their aid considerably increasing its value. It is therefore with grateful thanks that the author acknowledges the help and encouragement given by Professor E. W. Skeats, D.Sc., who has not only been good enough to write the Introductory passages, but who has carefully gone over the MS. and made many helpfulsuggestions. Mr. W. S. Dun, F.G.S., Palaeontologist to the Geological Survey Branch of the Department of Mines, Sydney, has also rendered generous help in giving the benefit of his full acquaintance of the palaeontology of his own State. To the Trustees of the National Museum the author is under special obligations for permission to photograph many unique fossil specimens in the Museum collection, comprising Figs. 3, 16-18, 20-22, 28-31, 35, 39, 40, 45, 46, 51-54, 57, 62, 78, 79, 127, 133, 136, 147 and 148. The author’s thanks are also due to Dr. E. C. Stirling, M.D., M.A., F.R.S., for permission to use Figs. 143, 144 and 145, whilst similar privileges have been accorded by Prof. A. G. Seward, F.R.S., Dr. F. A. Bather, F.R.S., and Mr. C. L. Barrett. Prof. T. W. Edgeworth David, F.R.S., has kindly cleared up some doubtful points of stratigraphy and further increased the author’s indebtedness by the loan of a unique slide of Radiolaria figured on p. 69. Mr. Eastwood Moore, to whom special thanks are due, has greatly added to the pictorial side of this work by his skillful help in preparing many of the illustrations for the press, as well as in the drawing of the several maps. The grouped sets of fossils have been especially drawn for this work by the author. They are either copied from authentic specimens or from previously published drawings; references to the authorities being given in the accompanying legends. Dr. T. S. Hall has kindly read the section on Graptolites and Mammalia. For many helpful suggestions and the careful reading of proofs, thanks are especially owing to Mr. W. E. G. Simons, Mr. R. A. Keble, and to my wife.
Geological Department,The University, Melbourne.