Observations on belemnites, and other fossil remains of Cephalopoda, discovered by Mr. Reginald Neville Mantell, C.E. in the Oxford clay near Trowbridge, in Wiltshire / by Gideon Algernon Mantell.

  • Mantell, Gideon Algernon, 1790-1852.
Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on belemnites, and other fossil remains of Cephalopoda, discovered by Mr. Reginald Neville Mantell, C.E. in the Oxford clay near Trowbridge, in Wiltshire / by Gideon Algernon Mantell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    3/20
    Js/rV ' y///: ' / ■S' '■ '■''f's, ' sss z/7 / r ^ y/<r ' yy// s v' PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. XII. Observations on some Belemnites and other Fossil Remains of Cephalopoda, discovered by Mr. Reginald Neville Mantell, C.E. in the Oxford Clay near Trowbridge, in Wiltshire. By Gideon Algernon Mantell, Esq., LL.D., F.R.S., F.L.S., Vice-President of the Geological Society. Received March 2,—Read March 23, 1848. The group of argillaceous deposits of the Oolite or Jurassic formation, termed the Oxford Clay, has yielded some of the most interesting and instructive examples of the fossil remains of Cephalopoda hitherto discovered in England. Christian-Malford, in Wiltshire, is especially celebrated for the very perfect specimens of the soft parts of certain extinct forms of this class of molluscous animals; examples having been obtained in which the body and muscular tunic or mantle, the cephalic jrms with their uncinated acetabula, the capsule or external tunic of the eye-ball, the ink-bag, and the phragmocone, are preserved, and in some instances but slightly displaced from their natural relative positions and connections. The remarkable fossils de- scribed in the Memoir on the Belemnite* by Professor Owen, were procured by the Marquess of Northampton, Mr. Cunnington, and Mr. Pratt, from this locality. A branch line from the Great Western Railway to Trowbridge in Wiltshire, now in progress, in some parts passes over, and in others cuts through, the usual series of oolitic strata of that part of England ; namely, the Kimmeridge Clay, Oxford Clay, Kelloway Rock, and the Great Oolite with its subordinate beds of Cornbrash, Forest Marble, Bradford Clay, Stc.-f- My son, Mr. Reginald Neville Mantell, who is engaged on this work under the eminent engineer I. K. Brunel, Esq., availed him- self of this favourable opportunity of collecting a very extensive suite of the fossils brought to light by the various cuttings and excavations required in the construction of the railway. This collection comprises many hundred specimens of the shells and * Philosophical Transactions for 1844, p. 65. t Wonders of Geology, 6th edition, p. 502.