(FIGURE 136. Dinotherium giganteum, Kaup.)
At some points, as at Louans, south of Tours, the shells are stained of a
ferruginous colour, not unlike that of the Red Crag of Suffolk. The species are,
for the most part, marine, but a few of them belong to land and fluviatile
genera. Among the former, Helix turonensis (Figure 38, Chapter 3) is the most
abundant. Remains of terrestrial quadrupeds are here and there intermixed,
belonging to the genera Dinotherium (Figure 136), Mastodon, Rhinoceros,
Hippopotamus, Chaeropotamus, Dichobune, Deer, and others, and these are
accompanied by cetacea, such as the Lamantin, Morse, Sea-calf, and Dolphin, all
of extinct species.
The fossil testacea of the faluns of the Loire imply, according to the late
Edward Forbes, that the beds were formed partly on the shore itself at the level
of low water, and partly at very moderate depths, not exceeding ten fathoms
below that level. The molluscan fauna is, on the whole, much more littoral than
that of the Pliocene Red and Coralline Crag of Suffolk, and implies a shallower
sea. It is, moreover, contrasted with the Suffolk Crag by the indications it
affords of an extra-European climate.
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