A Pictorial Atlas of Fossil Remains, consisting of coloured illustrations selected from Parkinson's "Organic remains of a former world," and Artis's "Antediluvian phytology."

by Gideon Algernon Mantell

Fig. 22. Adelosina, of D'Orbigny; a recent species.

Figs. 23, & 24. Gyrogonites. The fossils here figured on a magnified scale as microscopic shells of the same family as those above described, received the name of Gyrogonites, or twisted stones. They prove to be the seed-vessels of a species of the common fresh-water plant, the Chara. The fruit of this genus consists of minute nuclei, with an external calcareous covering, composed of five spirally twisted plates, which unite at the summit. These fossils occur by myriads in many of the fresh-water secondary and tertiary limestones, as well as in the calcareous deposits now in progress of formation in our lakes. In the lacustrine limestones of the Isle of Wight (at Binstead, White Cliff, &c.), beautiful specimens may be obtained.[60] Professor E. Forbes has discovered Gyrogonites in the Wealden strata of the Isle of Purbeck, associated with shells of the genera Planorbis, Physa, Paluolina, &c.

[60] See Geological Excursions round the Isle of Wight. 2d Edit. 1850, p. 108.

Fig. 25. Polystomella crispa, of Linnæus. From the tertiary strata of the Apennines.

Fig. 26. Cristellaria ?

Figs. 27, & 28. Rotalia Beccarii. Apennines.

Fig. 30. Cristellaria galea, of Lamarck. Apennines.

Fig. 29. Cast of a species of Area; a bivalve shell, from tertiary strata, Bordeaux.

Fig. 31. A curious pteropodous shell (Vaginella depressa), from tertiary strata, Basterot.