On New Ammonites from the English Chalk

Abstract

Ammonites are comparatively common in the Cenomanian or Lower Chalk, become rarer in the Turonian or Middle Chalk, and are very scarce in the Upper Chalk. On a former occasion, when pointing out that while ammonites were unknown from the Micraster cor-testudinarium Chalk of England, they occurred in the same Chalk in the north of France, the writer was inclined to attribute this absence or scarcity to limited horizontal distribution of the ammonites. The possibility, however, of there being gaps in the Chalk succession, for example at the horizon of Actinocamax plena, at the Chalk-Rock, in and above the cor-anguinum zone, etc., cannot be denied. The zone of Micraster cor-anguinum is not quite so barren as the zone below, but the only ammonites hitherto known from it are doubtful examples, probably referable to Parapuzosia. One impression, on an oyster, of part of the ventral area of a large specimen, possibly of P. corbarica Grossouvre sp., was collected by Mr. Dibley in the London-Portland Pit at Northfleet, Kent, and Dr. Rowe recorded probably comparable Parapuzosia (“ammonites of the leptophyllus group”) from Dorset and Yorkshire.