BIRDS:—Bones: as the Moa bones of New Zealand and the Emu bones of the King Island sand-dunes ([Fig. 15]). Very rarely the impressions of the feathers of birds are found, as in the ironstone occurring in the Wannon district of Victoria ([Fig. 16]), and others in fine clays and marls on the continent of Europe and in England. Fossil eggs of sea-birds are occasionally found in coastal sand-dunes of Holocene age.
REPTILES.—Skeletons of fossil turtles (Notochelone) are found in Queensland ([Fig. 17]). Whole skeletons and the dermal armour (spines and bony plates) of the gigantic, specialised reptiles are found in Europe, North America, and in other parts of the world.
FISHES.—Whole skeletons are sometimes found in sand and clay rocks, as in the Trias of Gosford, New South Wales ([Fig. 18]), and in the Jurassic of South Gippsland. The ganoid or enamel-scaled fishes are common fossils in the Devonian and Jurassic, notably in Germany, Scotland and Canada: and they also occur in the sandy mudstone of the Lower Carboniferous of Mansfield, Victoria.
INSECTS.—Notwithstanding their fragility, insects are often well preserved as fossils, for the reason that their skin and wings consist of the horny substance called chitin. The Tertiary marls of Europe are very prolific in insect remains ([Fig. 19]). From the Miocene beds of Florissant, Colorado, U.S.A., several hundred species of insects have been described.
Fig. 18.
A Fossil Fish with Ganoid Scales (Pristisomus crassus, A.S. Woodw.).
About 1/2 nat. size. Trias (Hawkesbury Series), of Gosford, New South Wales.
(Nat. Mus. Coll.)
| Fig 19—A Fossil Insect
(Tipula sp.) in Amber. Nat. size. Oligocene beds; Baltic Prussia. (F.C. Coll.) |