This same genus of fresh-water
ganoids has also been met with in the Hempstead beds in the Isle of Wight. The
bones of several birds have been obtained from Hordwell, and the remains of
quadrupeds of the genera Palaeotherium (Palaeotherium minus), Anoplotherium,
Anthracotherium, Dichodon, Dichobune, Spalacodon, and Hyaenodon. The latter
offers, I believe, the oldest known example of a true carnivorous animal in the
series of British fossils, although I attach very little theoretical importance
to the fact, because herbivorous species are those most easily met with in a
fossil state in all save cavern deposits. In another point of view, however,
this fauna deserves notice. Its geological position is considerably lower than
that of the Bembridge or Montmartre beds, from which it differs almost as much
in species as it does from the still more ancient fauna of the Lower Eocene beds
to be mentioned in the sequel. It therefore teaches us what a grand succession
of distinct assemblages of mammalia flourished on the earth during the Eocene
period.
Many of the marine shells of the brackish-water beds of the above series, both
in the Isle of Wight and Hordwell Cliff, are common to the underlying Barton
Clay: and, on the other hand, there are some fresh-water shells, such as Cyrena
obovata, which are common to the Bembridge beds, notwithstanding the
intervention of the St.
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