I.—On Labechia rotunda, a new species of Stromatoporoid, from the Wenlock Limestone of Shropshire

Abstract

Whilst working at the fossils connected with our paper “A Study of Ballstone and the Associated Beds in theWenlock Limestone of Shropshire”, my colleague, Miss M. C.Crosfield, and I became much interested in a small round form of Labechia. We did not find many specimens, about a dozen in all,although we spent a considerable time in collecting, and these wereobtained at only three quarries, which contain otherwise a prolificfauna, viz. Bradley Rock and Shadwell Rock, Much Wenlock, andat Knole Quarry, Presthope. The tops of these quarries are in thehighest beds of the Wenlock Limestone series and are of bands ofirregularly shaped nodules of various sizes, with shale partings andof a light-brown colour (this latter fact distinguishes the beds fromthe rest of the limestone). It is only in these upper beds that this Labechia is found, but Labechia conferta, Lonsd., is found, often in greatnumbers and size, everywhere throughout the limestone, thoughperhaps slightly diminishing in quantity at the top. So far, I havenot been able satisfactorily to identify this species. Nicholson, in his monograph, mentions and figures a young example of L. conferta, which he records as only being 2 to 3 cm. in diameter and 1 mm. inthickness.