XX.— Description of the Fossil Remains of a Mammal (Hyracotherium leporinum) and of a Bird (Lithornis vulturinus) from the London Clay.
1841; Geological Society of London; Volume: 6; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1144/transgslb.6.1.203
ISSN2058-1041
Autores Tópico(s)Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology
ResumoPlate XXI. Until the present year, the remains of the highest organized animals which were known to exist in the marine Eocene deposit called the London Clay, were those of Reptiles and Fishes; and the danger of founding conclusions in Palæontology from negative evidence was, perhaps, never more strikingly illustrated than by the fact, that the first scientifically determined relic of a warm-blooded animal from that formation proved to belong not only to the Mammiferous class, but to the highest order of that class, if Man be excepted. Besides the remains of the Quadrumanous species just alluded to, there have since been discovered the teeth of Cheiroptera, of Plantigrade and Digitigrade Carnivora, and of a species probably belonging to the Marsupial order*. These most interesting fossils have been disinterred from the London clay, underlying the coralline crag, near Kyson in Suffolk. I now propose to describe a fossil indicative of a new and extinct genus of the Pachydennal order, and the remains of a bird, both from the London clay at the estuary of the Thames; the latter fossils being the first of their class which have been discovered in this member of the Eocene tertiary deposits. The Pachydermal fossil consists of a small mutilated cranium, about the size of that of a Hare, containing the molar teeth of the upper jaw nearly perfect and the sockets of the canines. It was discovered in the cliffs of Studd Hill, about a mile to the west of Herne Bay, and was
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