Tertiary Foraminifera from near Bombay, Franklin. County, Auckland, New Zealand

Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Volume 67, 1938, Page 71

Tertiary Foraminifera from near Bombay, Franklin. County, Auckland, New Zealand By Walter J. Parr, F.R.M.S. [Read before the Auckland Institute, January 31, 1937; received by the Editor, February 5, 1937; issued separately, June, 1937.] Introductory Note. The material here described was forwarded to the writer by Professor J. A. Bartrum, of Auckland University College, over a period extending from 1927 to 1936. It consists of a number of selected examples of foraminifera and three samples, the whole having been collected from the foraminiferal shales occurring in the Bombay-Happy Valley area, in Franklin County, south-east of Auckland. These shales are described in a recent paper by Professor Bartrum and Mr. W. J. Branch (1936, pp. 386–404) on the geology of the area as attaining a thickness of about 100 feet and forming one of the most persistent beds in the area. Apart from the foraminifera, the only fossils found in them are rare molluscan shells, the names of which have not been recorded. In view of the fact that the foraminifera are present in such numbers as to lead to the beds in which they occur being designated foraminiferal shales, it may be of value to give an account of the species identified. The following notes have accordingly been prepared. The age of the shales and of the other sediments, both marine and fresh-water, forming the Tertiary sequence, is stated by Messrs. Bartrum and Branch to be early mid-Tertiary, but because of the absence of satisfactory palaeontological evidence, the authors did not attempt to correlate the various strata with those elsewhere. They note, however (op. cit., p. 399) that “the strata may well prove to be basal continuations of the Waitemata Series.” The foraminifera of the shales consist almost wholly of examples of sandy-shelled genera, such as Listerella, Cyclammina, and Haplophragmoides. The perforate calcareous forms have been leached out and are now represented by a few internal casts in silica or pyrite. There are no examples of the porcellanous or imperforate calcareous group. The last-mentioned group, it may be remarked, appears to be absent from the Waitemata Series, as it has not been recorded from them and has not occurred in the many samples of material Professor Bartrum has sent me from these beds. The figured specimens and examples of the other species recorded have been deposited in the collection of Auckland University College. I wish to express my best thanks to Professor Bartrum for his kindness in forwarding this and much other material from New Zealand.

Details of Material Examined. No. 1. Selected foraminifera from near Bombay, apparently from a reddish shale. Species present:— Cyclammina complanata Chapman Listerella elegans (Karrer) No. 2. Grey shale from near summit of road betwen Ramarama and Ararimu, near Bombay. The foraminifera are visible to the naked eye as white spots on the surface of the shale. After washing, the residues consist almost entirely of examples of Listerella elegans (Karrer). There are also occasional examples of other foraminifera, the calcareous forms being represented by casts in silica. The remaining material includes much glauconite, which gives a dark green colour to the finest siftings, feldspar and quartz in angular to sub-angular grains, and pyrite. Foraminifera present:— Nodosaria longiscata d'Orbigny 1 example Lagena apiculata (Reuss) 1 example Guttulina sp. aff. regina (Brady, Parker, and Jones) 1 example Glandulina laevigata (d'Orb.) frequent Bulimina sp. indet. (costate form) 1 example Gyroidina soldanii (d'Orbigny) 2 examples Cibicides sp. aff. pseudoungerianus (Cushman) 1 example Ammodiscus sp. 3 examples Haplophragmoides sp. common H. canariensis (d'Orbigny) rare Listerella elegans (Karrer) abundant A reniform spicule of the siliceous sponge Geodia was also seen. No. 3. Yellowish shale from mid-portion (left bank) of creek flowing past casein factory, Bombay, and about 1 ½ −2 miles downstream from the factory. This sample, like the others, broke up readily in water, forming a silty mud, nearly all of which was removed during the process of washing the material. Examples of Listerella elegans (Karrer) and a few of Haplophragmoides sp. form about half of the residues, the balance being a mineral sand, mainly very fine, the minerals present in order of predominance being feldspar, glauconite, and quartz. The siliceous sponge Geodia was represented by a spicule similar to that in sample No. 2. Foraminifera present:— Cyclammina complanata Chapman common Trochammina sp. 1 example No. 4. Grey shale from above marine sandstone at road forks about 4 miles east (approx.) of Bombay. This sample is similar in appearance to No. 2. In breaking it up preparatory to washing, a fish seale, measuring 8 mm. across, was found. The residues after washing are extremely small, consisting

Fig. 1.—Ammodiscus sp. Between Ramarama and Ararimu. a. Side view; b, edge view. × 52. Fig. 2—Haplophragmoides sp. Between Ramarama and Ararmu. a, side view; b, edge view. × 52. Fig. 3—lammina complunata Chapman Near Bombay. a. side view; b. edge view. × 26. Fig. 4–8.—Listerella elegans (Karrer). 4–7: Mid-portion (left bank) of creek flowing past casein factory. Bombay, and about 1 ½−2 miles downstream from factory. 4: Side view of microspheric example which has not passed biseral stage. 5. End view of example with cribrate aperture. 6: Front view of adult microspheric example. 7: Front view of adult megalospheric specimen. 8: Section through microspheric example from near Bombay. The section is cut slightly obliquely and does not pass through the proloculus. 4–7. × 39. S. × 26.

of foraminifera, rare siliceous spicules of the sponge genus Geodia, and a little fine sand, including some glauconite. There are also some minute spherical bodies, averaging about 0.075 mm. in diameter, in pyrite, which may be the internal casts of individual chambers of Globigerina. Foraminifera present:— Cyclammina complanata Chapman common Trochammina sp. 1 example Notes on the Foraminifera. Nodosaria longiscata d'Orbigny. Nodosaria longiscata d'Orbigny, 1846, p. 32, pl. i, figs. 10–12; Chapman, 1926, p. 51, pl. xi, fig. 7. N. arundinea Schwager, 1866, p. 211, pl. v. figs. 43–45. This species is represented by an internal cast in silica of a two-chambered fragment. It is a well-known fossil with a geological range of from Eocene to Pliocene and has been recorded from the Eocene to Miocene of Europe and North America, the Miocene of South America, the Miocene of Victoria, the late Tertiary of the tropical Indo-Pacific region, and in New Zealand from the Upper Eocene. I have met with the species at a number of localities in the Dominion in beds ranging from Eocene to Miocene (Awamoan) in age. The oldest occurrence appears to be at Pahi, on Kaipara Harbour, where it is found in a marl associated with Hantkenina, Rzehakina, Rotaliatina, Eouvigerina, abundant Globigerinae and other foraminifera, and radiolarians. This rock, for samples of which I am indebted to Professor Bartrum, is probably of Middle Eocene age. In the beds of the Waitemata Series, I have had N. longiscata from the west face of Cape Horn, on Manukau Harbour, in material collected by Mr. E. J. Searle. Gyroidina soldanii (d'Orbigny). Rotalia (Gyroidina) soldanii d'Orbigny, 1826, p. 278, no. 5; Modèle No. 36. Rotalia soldanii d'Orb.: Stache, 1864, p. 273, pl. xxiv. figs. 23 a–c; Chapman, 1926, p. 86, pl. v, figs. 23 a–c. Gyroidina soldanii (d'Orb.): Cushman, 1931, pl. 38, pl. vii, figs. 3–8. There are two small examples of this species, the larger of which measures 0.25 mm. in diameter. This is a common form in the Middle and Older Tertiary of New Zealand. While it was not recorded by Karrer from Orakei Bay, I have had it from this locality in material collected by Professor Bartrum and it occurs elsewhere in beds of the same age in the vicinity of Auckland. Ammodiscus sp. (Figs. 1a, b). This genus is represented by two complete examples of a form which I have been unable to identify with any known species. With so little material, it has not been considered advisable to describe it as new here, but the figures will show the general characters of the species. The larger example measures 0.6 mm. in diameter. The wall is finely arenaceous, with much siliceous cement.

Haplophragmoides canariensis (d'Orbigny). Nonionina canariensis d'Orbigny, 1839, p. 128, pl. ii, figs. 33, 34. Haplophragmium canariense (d'Orb.): Brady, 1884, p. 310, pl. xxxv, figs. 1–5. Haplophragmoides conariensis (d'Orb.): Cushman, 1920, p. 38, pl. viii, fig. 1. The present specimens are rare and small, measuring about 0.35 mm. in diameter. There are six chambers to the whorl and the test is involute and proportionately thicker than in typical examples of this species. Brady's fig. 3 in the Challenger Report represents a similar form, the specimen figured being from off Prince Edward Island, between South Africa and Kerguelen Island, in 50 to 150 fathoms. Haplophragmoides sp. (Figs. 2a, b). Examples of a species of Haplophragmoides are common in sample No. 2 and the same form is also present in sample no. 3. As is frequently the case with the genus in the fossil state, the specimens appear to be misshapen, the deformation being due to the collapse of the chamber walls or to stresses to which the shell has been subjected as a fossil. In nearly every case there is evidence that both forces have operated. In these circumstances, the normal form of the test is uncertain and the identification of the species has not been attempted. It attains a diameter of about 0.6 mm. and a thickness of 0.2 mm. The test is planospiral and involute, with about 6 chambers to the whorl. The sutures are gently recurved and indistinet, while the shell-wall is composed of sand grains of different sizes, but mostly fine, with little cement. The shells are more or less compressed, at times being almost complanate. In his monograph of the Cretaceous and Tertiary foraminifera of New Zealand, Chapman (1926, p. 28, pl. vi, fig. 10) has recorded the occurrence of Haplophragmium emaciatum Brady in the Upper Eocene and Lower Miocene. His figured example was from Orakei Bay. This is similar to many of the specimens from the Bombay district. Lacroix (1935, pp. 1–16) has, however, recently demonstrated that Brady's species possesses a labyrinthic structure similar to that of Discammina, to which genus it is now referred. Discammina is not known as a fossil, and, as the present specimens are all typical examples of Haplophragmoides, it seems that D. emaciata has not so far been met with in the Tertiary of New Zealand. The number of chambers to a whorl is the same in the present species as in that recorded above as Haplophragmoides canariensis, but otherwise the two forms appear to be distinct. Cyclammina complanata Chapman. (Figs. 3a, b). Cyclammina complanata Chapman, 1904, p. 228, pl. xxii, fig. 6. Chapman's description of this species is as follows: “Test spiral, discoidal, much compressed. Margin sub-acute or slightly rounded, undulate. Whorls partially evolute. About twelve chambers to the outer whorl in full-sized specimens. Septal lines sinuous. A deep umbilical depression usually present. Surface of test smooth; in worn

specimens pitted, showing evidence of the internal cancellated structure. In median section the main bulk of the chambers is seen to be occupied by labyrinthic shell structure. Diameter of test from 1 to 2 mm.” C. complanata was described from beds which are regarded by Chapman and Crespin as of Upper Oligocene age at Brown's Creek, west of Cape Otway, where it occurred in an ochreous brown clay, apparently of shallow water origin. The specimens now attributed to Chapman's species match examples from the type-sample, except that they are slightly larger, measuring up to 2.2 mm. in diameter. Two other species of Cyclammina have been recorded from New Zealand, C. incisa (Stache), described from the Upper Eocene of Whaingaroa (now known as Raglan), and C. medwayensis, described by the writer from the Miocene (Awamoan) of the Medway River district, near Awatere. C. complanata is proportionately thinner and flatter than C. incisa. C. medwayensis does not attain a diameter of more than 1 mm. and always has an involute test, which is more roughly finished than that of C. complanata. Internally, C. medwayensis is coarsely, and C. complanata finely, labyrinthic, the shell wall of the latter species being a mass of fine tubules. In transverse sections of the test these appear as narrow passages at right angles to the surface of the chamber wall, the outer end being closed and the inner end opening into the chamber cavity. Listerella elegans (Karrer). (Figs. 4–8). Clavulina elegans Karrer, 1864, p. 80, pl. xvi, fig. 11. Bigenerina nodosaria Chapman, 1926 (pars) (non d'Orbigny), p. 31, pl. i, fig. 11 (reproduction of Karrer's figure). Description: Karrer's description in German of this species may be translated as follows:—“The straight shell is strongly built, somewhat like Clavulina rostrata Reuss. It is cylindrical in shape and because of its sandy composition has a rough surface. There are eight or more chambers, at first biserial, the last two or three in a straight line and each overlapping its predecessor. The terminal somewhat smaller chamber is rather pointed and contains the scarcely visible central aperture. Length barely 2 mm. Rare.” The typelocality was Orakei Bay. It has not been recorded since. The discovery of this species in the shales from near Bombay in abundance is of much interest, as its true generic position has always been doubtful. Karrer placed it in Clavulina, while describing it as biserial in the early stages. Chapman, on Karrer's description, regarded it as a Bigenerina and as identical with B. nodosaria d'Orbigny. Actually both were in part correct, since the species falls into the genus Listerella, which was erected by Cushman as recently as 1933. In this genus the test in the early stages is a trochoid spire with four or five chambers to a whorl, reducing later to three, then a series of twos, and in the adult uniserial. Karrer's figure and description relate to the megalospheric form, in which, in addition to the biserial and uniserial stages which he recognised, there is at least an earlier series of chambers arranged triserially. The microspheric form exhibits the four stages characteristic of the genus. In

view of the differences between the two forms, it may be helpful to describe them:— Form B. Test about 2 ½ times as long as broad, circular in section, divided externally into two portions, the earlier more or less bulbous and usually the longer, the second portion with sides roughly parallel; internally the test is in four stages, the earliest a whorl of four to five chambers encircling the proloculum; this is followed by two or three whorls of chambers arranged triserially and then a biserial series of two to three whorls; the final stage consists of one to three uniserial chambers; chambers in the early stages generally indistinct, in the adult uniserial stage distinct, inflated and with sutures somewhat depressed; wall coarsely arenaceous, rather smoothly finished; aperture in the triserial and biserial stages a narrow, nearly vertical slit, in the adult terminal, usually rounded and often with a valvular tooth, occasionally cribrate. Length up to 2.6 mm.; maximum diameter 1.1 mm. Form A. Test usually smaller and proportionately more slender than Form B, about 3 to 3 ½ times as long as wide; the early bulbous portion shorter than the uniserial portion; internally the earliest stage recognised consists of a few chambers triserially arranged; this is followed by a short biserial stage, usually of not more than two whorls, and then up to three uniserial chambers. Length up to 2.5 mm.; maximum diameter 0.74 mm. I have not been able to find more than three chambers to the whorl in the megalospheric form. Possibly there is a larger number in the first whorl, but owing to the thickness of the shell-wall and the small size of the early chambers, the sections made have not permitted this to be determined. In the microspheric form, it is even more difficult to ascertain the number and arrangement of the chambers in the early stages, and it was only by a stroke of good fortune that an example of this form, in which these chambers were visible from the exterior owing to their being infilled with a dark mineral, was found. The only other New Zealand species which could be confused with Listerella elegans are those described by Stache (1864, pp. 167, 169) from Whaingaroa under the names of Clavulina antipodum and C. robusta. Apart from L. elegans having priority, it can be readily distinguished externally from Stache's species, which have a comparatively shorter and more bulbous commencement. As to the internal differences, the biserial stage is not present in any of the examples of C. antipodum I have sectioned from beds at Motutara, on Kawhia Harbour, of the same age as those at Whaingaron. In view of this and also that the early portion of the test is rounded in section, it would appear that C. antipodum and probably also C. robusta should be transferred to the genus Martinotliella. L. elegans is abundant in samples 2 and 3 of the shales from the Bombay district. It is noteworthy that Cyclammina complanata did not occur in these samples, while in sample 4 it was common

and L. elegans was absent. The only sample in which the two species occur together is No. 1, from which Professor Bartrum's first specimens were obtained. This is an interesting distribution, suggesting that each species has a definite vertical range with a zone in which they overlap. I have, however, no information as to the relative positions, stratigraphically, of the various samples, so am unable to confirm this. It has already been stated that the only previous record of L. elegans is that of Karrer from Orakei Bay, or, as it is now known, Hobson's Bay. I have the species from the same locality, but apart from this and the present occurrences, have not met with it in any of the New Zealand material I have examined. List of Works to Which Reference is Made. Bartrum, J. A., and Branch, W. J., 1936. Geology of Bombay-Happy Valley Area, Franklin County, Auckland, Trans. Roy. Soc. N.Z., vol. 65, pp. 386–404, pls. 40–43. Brady, H. B., 1884. Report on the foraminifera dredged by H. M. S. Challenger during the years 1873–76, Rept. Voy. Challenger, Zool., vol. 9 (2 vols., text and plates). Chapman, F., 1904. On Some Cainozoic Foraminifera from Brown's Creek, Otway Coast, Rec. Geol. Surv. Vic., vol. 1, pt. 3, pp. 227–230, pl. 22. — 1926. The Cretaceous and Tertiary Foraminifera of New Zealand, etc., N.Z. Geol. Surv. Pal. Bull. no. 11. Cushman, J. A., 1920, etc. The Formaminifera of the Atlantic Ocean, U.S. Nat. Mus. Bull., 104, pt. 2, 1920. Lituolidae; pt. 8, 1931. Rotaliidae-Homotremidae. Karrer, F., 1864. Die Foraminiferen-Fauna des tertiären Grünsandsteines der Orakei-Bay bei Auckland, Novara Eooped., Geol. Theil., vol. 1—Paläont., pp. 69–86, pl. 16. Lacroix, E., 1935. Discammina fallaoo et Haplophragmium emaciatum, Bull. Inst. Océanographique (Monaco), no. 667. D'Orbigny, A. D., 1826. Tableau Méthodique de le Classe des Céphalopodes, Ann. Sci. Nat. (Paris), vol. 7, pp. 245–314, pls. 10–17. — 1839. Foraminifères, in Barker-Webb and Berthelot; Histoire Naturelle des Iles Canaries, vol. 2, pp. 119–146, 3 pls. Paris. — 1846. Foraminifères Fossiles du Bassin Tertiare de Vienne, 4to., 21 pls. Paris. Schwager, C., 1866. Fossile Foraminiferen von Kar-Nikobar, Novara-Eooped., Geol. Theil., vol. 2, pp. 187–268, pls. 4–7. Stache, G., 1864. Die Foraminiferen der Tertiären Mergel des Whaingaroa-Hafens (Provinz Auckland), Novara Eooped., Geol. Theil., vol. 1—Paläont., p. 161, pls. 21–24.