Unpublished paper, 'Note on an indication of depth of primeval seas, afforded by the remains of colour in fossil Testacea' by Edward Forbes

Description

Forbes undertakes an investigation into the bathymetrical distribution of existing molluscs and finds that not only does the colour of their shells cease to be strongly marked at considerable depths, but also that well-defined patterns are, with very few and slight exceptions, presented only by testacea inhabiting the littoral, circumlittoral and median zones. In the Mediterranean only one in eighteen of the shells taken from below 100 fathoms exhibits any markings of colour. Between 35 and 55 fathoms, the proportion of marked to plain shells observed by Forbes is less than one in three, and between the sea-margin and 2 fathoms the striped or mottled species exceed half of the total number.

Annotations in pencil throughout.

Subject: Zoology / Paleontology / Bathymetry

Received 22 March 1854. Read 23 March 1854.

Whilst the Royal Society declined to publish this paper in full, an abstract of the paper was published in volume 7 of the Proceedings of the Royal Society as 'Note on an indication of depth of primaeval seas, afforded by the remains of colour in fossil testacea'.

Reference number

AP/36/12

Earliest possible date

1854

Physical description

Ink and graphite pencil on paper

Page extent

4 pages

Format

Manuscript