It has been traced
for 30 miles in a straight line, and can be recognised at still more distant
points. The characteristic fossils are a small bivalve, having the form of a
Cyclas or Cyrena, also a small entomostracan, Cythere inflata (Figure 432), and
the microscopic shell of an annelid of an extinct genus called Microconchus
(Figure 431), allied to Spirorbis. In the coal-field of Yorkshire there are
fresh-water strata, some of which contain shells referred to the family
Unionidae; but in the midst of the series there is one thin but very widely-
spread stratum, abounding in fishes and marine shells, such as Goniatites
Listeri (Figure 433), Orthoceras, and Aviculopecten papyraceus, Goldf. (Figure
434).
INSECTS IN EUROPEAN COAL.
Articulate animals of the genus Scorpion were found by Count Sternberg in 1835
in the coal-measures of Bohemia, and about the same time in those of Coalbrook
Dale by Mr. Prestwich, were also true insects, such as beetles of the family
Curculionidae, a neuropterous insect of the genus Corydalis, and another related
to the Phasmidae, have been found.
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