| Fig. | 1.— | Phascolotherium Bucklandi. The right branch of the lower jaw, seen from within, with seven grinders, one canine tooth, and three incisors. |
| 2.— | Amphitherium Broderipii. The left branch of the lower jaw the inner side; the incisor and canine teeth are wanting The upper figures are enlarged views of three molar teeth. |
These most important organic remains have all been found in the oolitic calcareous flag-stones of Stonesfield: deposits which, as we have already had occasion to notice, teem with other relics of great interest. Two specimens of the natural size are represented [Lign. 265], and will serve for reference to the collector who may visit that interesting locality.
The existence of undoubted mammalia in the secondary formations was first made known by Dr. Buckland (in 1823), who, upon the authority of Cuvier, stated that the two specimens then discovered at Stonesfield belonged to marsupials allied to the Opossum (Didelphys). These fossils were the left branches of two lower jaws; both were imbedded in the stone by the external surface, the inner side only being exposed. One of the specimens has ten molar teeth in a row; the other (the beautiful fossil, fig. 1, Lign. 265, now in the British Museum,) has seven molars, one canine tooth, and three incisors. Five other specimens have since been found.[762]
[762] See Brit. Foss. Mam. pp. 15-70, for ample details of their anatomical characters, and physiological relations.
The Amphitherium had thirty-two teeth in the lower jaw, that is, sixteen on each side; it is presumed to have been insectivorous, and to have belonged to the placental mammalia. The Phascolotherium had four true molar teeth, and three or four false molars, one canine, and three incisors in each branch of the lower jaw; and closely approximates to marsupial genera now restricted to New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land. It is, indeed, as Professor Phillips first remarked, an interesting fact, that the other organic remains of the British Oolite correspond with the existing forms now confined to the Australian continent and neighbouring seas; for in those distant latitudes, the Cestracionts, Trigoniæ, and Terebratulæ inhabit the ocean, and the Cycadeæ and Araucariæ flourish on the dry land (Wond. p. 894).
Thus we have evidence of the existence of the Marsupial order during the Secondary and Tertiary formations, a proof, as Dr. Buckland observes (Bd. p. 73), that this order, instead of being, as was once supposed, of more recent introduction than other orders of mammalia, was, in reality, the most ancient condition under which animals of this class first existed in the earlier geological epochs, and was coexistent with many other orders throughout Europe in the Eocene period; while its geographical distribution in the existing fauna is restricted to North and South America, and to New Holland, and the adjacent islands.
VII. Fossil Carnivora.—The fossil bones and teeth of numerous species of Carnivora, the order comprising the mammalia which prey on other animals, of which the Weasel, Bear, Cat, Dog, &c. are examples, abound in fissures and caverns, in conglomerated rocks, and in drifted sand and gravel. The remains of the colossal Pachyderms, the Mastodons and Elephants, lie buried, for the most part, as we have previously shown, in the superficial alluvial deposits; but the Carnivora, although occasionally entombed with the Herbivora in superficial gravels and loams, are principally found imbedded in the floors of extensive caverns.[763] In many instances, such immense quantities of bones and teeth of individuals of all ages, and belonging to but one or two species, occur in certain caves, as to render it probable that these were for a long period the dens of the extinct species of Bears, Hyænas, &c. whose bones they enclose.
[763] Rep. Brit. Assoc. 1842, sect. p. 62. For an account of the ossiferous caves of the Brazils, see Petrif. p. 483.
Another remarkable geological condition in which fossil bones of Carnivora occur, is that of an ossiferous conglomerate, or bone-breccia; that is, a conglomerate formed of fragments of limestone and bones, cemented together into a hard rock by a reddish calcareous concretion. This breccia is found in almost all the islands on the shores of the basin of the Mediterranean Sea; as for example, at Gibraltar, Cette, Nice, Cerigo, Corsica, Palermo, &c. The most celebrated of the bone-caves are situated in Franconia, and in many parts of the Hartz. That of Gailenreuth has long been known for its fossil treasures, which principally consist of the bones and teeth of two extinct species of Bears. One of these is equal in size to a large horse, and is termed Ursus spelæus (Bear of the Caverns); and skeletons have been found of all ages, from the adult to the cub but a few days old (see Wond. pp. 176, 177). There are numerous caverns in the neighbouring district, some of which are equally rich in the remains of Carnivora.[764] Similar fossils are also found in the consolidated gravel and drift in various parts of Germany, and in the fissures of rocks containing iron-ore, at Kropp, in Carniola.
[764] A highly interesting account of the Ossiferous Caves of the Hartz and Franconia, by Sir Philip Grey Egerton, Bart, was published in 1834, Geol. Proc. vol. ii. p. 94. See also Captain Montagu’s notice of the Sophienhöhle further on, at p. 820.