Part 2.—Molluscan Palaeontology
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 May 2009
The collection of mollusca dealt with in this paper was made by Dr. W. A. Macfadyen during his survey of the Farsan Islands, Kamaran Island, and the adjacent Arabian coast in the winter 1926–7. An account of the geology has been given by him in Part 1 of the paper, while Mr. A. G. Brighton will be contributing a section on the fossil echinoids. Dr. Macfadyen's investigation has shown that the islands are composed mainly of fossiliferous strata of late Cainozoic age. It was found possible to make out a definite succession, broken by local unconformities, and a good collection of fossils was made from each stratigraphical subdivision in the hope that definite evidence of the age of the beds would be obtained. The only previous contribution to the palaeontology of the area is a paper by Jousseaume (1888), which includes an account of twenty-five species of “raised beach” mollusca collected by Faurot on Kamaran Island. One of these—a Spondylus—is described as new, but the remainder are referred to living Indo-Pacific species. It appears from Faurot's description (1888, p. 534) that these shells came from the top bed of the Reef Limestone of Dr. Macfadyen's classification. Lists of the species present in Dr. Macfadyen's collection are given in the second part of the present paper, but these will be preceded by a short discussion of the general results of the investigation, and also of our present knowledge of the molluscan fauna of the late Cainozoic deposits of the Erythraean region.