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Otago Daily Times, Issue 21982, 17 June 1933, Page 18

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NOVEL GIFT TO MELBOURNE Eyes of scientists at the Melbourne Museum glistened one day last week when a case containing 170 fossils was received from the United States. The fossils represented shellfish of a very ancient period, tallying with the gold-bearing rocks of Australia. But, whereas the only fossils in Australia’s gold-rocks are the queer little graptolites—known to most miners as an indication of auriferous areas —the American _ rocks of the same period,/very many milliops of years ago, contain a wdde variety of shells. The gift canie from the National Museum at Washington. It was sent to Melbourne (says the Argus) in exchange for a/collection of marine fossils prepared at the Melbourne Museum by Mr Frank Cudmore, honorary palaeontologist. Described by the director of the Washington Museum as “lovely specimens,” the Australian fossils were given a place of honour in the American_ institution, the officials of which immediately set about preparing an adequate gift in return. The collection of brachiopod shells which arrived recently was-the result. All were technically named by Dr C. D. Walcott, the world’s chief authority on the subject. They came chiefly from limestone deposits of the central portion of the United States, and all belong,to forms which, like the graptolites, have long been extinct. None of them has been found in Australia. Seen under a microscope, the fossils appear to be quaint little shells, deeply embedded in scraps of rock. They are interesting relics of a day long dead, but it is doubtful whether they will arouse any 1 excitement in the public. The scientists who pored lovingly over them are not worrying on that score. To them this collection of brachiopod shells from the Cambrian and Ordivifiian rocks of America is a rare treasure.