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II 

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

GEOLOGY AND BIOLOGY OF 

NORTH ATLANTIC DEEP-SEA CORES 

Part 5. MOLLUSCA 

Part 6. ECHINODERMATA 

Part 7. MISCELLANEOUS FOSSILS AND SIGNIFICANCE 

OF FAUNAL DISTRIBUTION 

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 196-D 

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

Harold L. Ickes, Secretary 

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 

W. C. Mendenhall, Director 

Professional Paper 196-D 

GEOLOGY AND BIOLOGY OF 

NORTH ATLANTIC DEEP-SEA CORES 

BETWEEN NEWFOUNDLAND AND IRELAND 

PART 5. MOLLUSCA 

By HARALD A. REHDER 

PART 6. ECHINODERMATA 

By AusTIN H. CLARK 

PART 7. MISCELLANEOUS FOSSILS AND SIGNIFICANCE 

OF FAUNAL DISTRIBUTION 

By LLOYD G. HENBEST 

UNITED STATES 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

WASHINGTON : 1942 

For sale by the Supel"intendent of Documents, Washington, D. C. - - - - - Price 30 cents 

CONTENTS 

Page 

Outline of the complete report _______________________ _ v- Association of the species on the present ocean 

Summary of the complete ~eport _____________________ _ VI bottom---------------~---------------------- Foreword, by C. S. Piggot_ _________________________ _ "1 Relation of species to distance below top of core ___ _ 

General introduction, by W. H. Bradley ______________ _ XIII Part. 7. Miscellaneous fossils and significance of faunal 

Significance of the investigation _________________ _ XIII distribution, by Lloyd (}. HenbesL _________ _ 

Location of the core stations ____________________ _ XIV Introduction __________________________________ _ 

Personnel and composition of the report __________ _ XIV Methods of preparation and study _______________ _ 

Methods of sampling and examination ____________ _ XIV Notes on the groups of fossils ___________________ . 

Part 5. Mollusca, by Harald A. Rehder ______________ _ 107 Barnacles _________________________________ _ 

Introduction __________________________________ _ 107 Brachiopoda ______________________________ _ 

Description of species __________________________ _ 107 Bryozoa __________________________________ _ 

Pelecypoda _______________________________ _ 107 Diatomaceae ______________________________ _ 

ctastropoda _______________________________ _ 108 Echinodermata ____________________________ _ 

Archaeogastropoda ________________ ~----- 108 Foraminifera ______________________________ _ 

Pteropoda ____________________________ _ 108 Otoliths __________________________________ _ 

Miscellaneous pelecypods and gastropods _____ _ 108 Ostracoda _________________________________ _ 

Significance of Mollusca ________________________ _ 108 Pteropoda ________________________________ _ 

Part 6. Echinodermata, by Austin H. Clark ___________ _ 111 Radiolaria ________________________________ _ 

Introduction __________________________________ _ 111 Shell-boring organism _______ -_______________ _ 

Species represented in the cores __________________ _ 111 Siliceous sponge spicules ____________________ _ 

Annotated list of species ________________________ _ 111 Miscellaneous _____________________________ _ 

Occurrence of species by cores ___________________ _ 115 Use of fossils as indicators of depth ______________ _ 

Relative frequency of the species ____________ _ 115 Significance of distribution relative to hypotheses of 

Distribution of species by cores ______________ _ 116 extreme changes in ocean leveL _______________ _ 

Bathymetric anomalies ________ ~ ________________ _ 116 Index------------------------------------~--------

ILLUSTRATIONS 

.Page 

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120 

120 

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122 

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XVII 

Page 

PLATE 1. Bathymetric chart of a part of the North Atlantic Ocean showing the location of the core stations______________ xv 

2. Longitudinal sections of the air-dried cores_______________________________________________________________ xv 

20. Chart showing the distribution of the species of echinoderms in the cores____________________________________ 114 

21. Chart showing the distribution and relative abundance of the miscellaneous organisms in the cores______________ 122 

22-23. Miscellaneous fossils from the North Atlantic deep-sea cores____________________________________________ 131-133 

FIGURE 1. Profile across the North Atlantic Ocean bottom along the line of the numbered core stations___________________ xrv 

TABLES 

TABLE 1. Geographic location, length of cores, and depth of the water from which they were taken______________________ XIV 

19. Distribution of fragments of Ophiocten sericeum in the cores________________________________________________ 112 

20. Distribution of fragments of Echinus affinis in the cores ___________________ ,_______________________________ 112 

21. Distribution of fragments of Plexechinus hirsutus in the cores______________________________________________ 113 

22. Distribution of fragments of Urechinus naresianus inthe cores_____________________________________________ 113 

23. Distribution of fragments of Pourtalesia miranda in the cores______________________________________________ 114 

24. Distribution of fragments of Aeropsis rostrata in the cores_________________________________________________ 114 

25. Distribution of fragments of Aceste bellidifera in the cores__________________________________________________ 115 

26. Distribution of fragments of Hemiaster expergitus in the cores _____________________________________________ .. 115 

27. Distribution of the echinoderm species represented in the cores_____________________________________________ 116 

28. Number of samples containing echinoderm remains and number of species represented_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 116 

29. Relation of echinoderm species to distance below the top of the core_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 117 

III 

OUTLINE OF THE COMPLETE REPORT 

Foreword, by C. S. Piggot. 

Gener~l introduction, by W. H. Bradley. 

PART 1. Lithology and geologic interpretations, by M. N. Bramlette and W. H. Bradley. 

2. Foraminifera, by Joseph A. Cushman and Lloyd G. Henbest. 

3. Diatomaceae, by Kenneth E. Lohman. 

4. Ostracoda, by Willis L. Tressler. 

5. Mollusca, by Harald A. Rehder. 

6. Echinodermata, by Austin H. Clark. 

7. Miscellaneous fossils and significance of faunal distribution, by Lloyd G. Henbest. 

8. Organic matter content, by Parker D. Trask, H. Whitman Patnode, Jesse LeRoy Stimson, and John R. Gay. 

9. Selenium content and chemical analyses, by Glen Edgington and H. G. Byers. 

v 
-.- .. ~ ~-· 

·, ;r,; 
SUMMARY OF THE REPORT 

ln May and June 1936 Dr. C. S. Piggot of the Geophysical 

Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington, took a series 

of 11 deep-sea cores in the North Atlantic Ocean between the 

N ewfounqland bankf! and the banks off the Irish coast. These 

cores were taken from the Western Union Telegraph Co.'s cable 

ship Lord Kehin with the explosive type of sounding device 

which Dr. Piggot designed. In the· fall of that year he invited a 

group of geologists of the United States Geological Survpy to 

study the cores and prepare a report. Biologists of the United 

States National Museum, the University of Buffalo, and chemists of the United States Department of Agriculture cooperated 

in the investigation and contributed to the report. 

The westernmost core of the series (No. 3) was taken in the 

blue mud zone, but all the others were taken in parts of the ocean 

where the bottom is blanketed with globigerina ooze. The 

shortest cores are No. 8, taken on the mid-Atlantic ridge in 1,280 

meters of wat.er, and No. 11, taken where the c01e bit struck 

volcanic rock. The cores range in length from 0.34 to 2.93 

meters and average 2.35 meters. They were taken at depths 

ranging from 1,280 to 4,820 meters. 

Lithology and geologic interpretaticns.-In about 20 representative samples from each core the percentages of calcium carbonate, 

clay and silt, and sand were determined and plotted, and the 

relative abundance of Foraminifera, coccoliths,· a11d diatoms was 

estimated. Material between these guide samples was examined 

microscopically, especially in certain critical zones. 

Two zones were noted in which silicic volcanic ash (refractive 

index ncar 1.51) is common. The upper ash zone was found in 

all the cores except No. 11, but the lower one was found only in 

the lower part of cores 4 to 7. In core 3 the upper ash zone is 

represented by shards scattered very sparsely all through the 

core, as this core, despite its length of 2.82 meters, apparently did 

not reach the bottom of the ash zone. The upper ash zone, 

together with other adjacent lithologic zones, serves to correlate 

the cores, and the lower ash zone, found west of the mid-Atlantic 

ridge, helps to confirm the correlation. 

Besides the zones of volcanic ash four other zones distinctive in . 

lithologic character were found. These zones are characterized 

by a relative abundance of sand and pebbles, by a smal1er 

percentage of calcium carbonate, and by a sparsity of Foraminifera and coccoliths. They are distinctive also in texture. The 

pebbles are subrounded to angular and include a wide variety 

of rock types-sandstone, gneiss, soft shale, and limestone-of 

which limestone is the most common. Some of the pebbles are 

as much as 2 centimeters across. These zones are interpreted as 

glacial marine deposits formed during the Pleistocene glacial 

epoch, when continental glaciers were eroding the land. Drift 

ice from the continental glaciers apparently transported considerable quantities of rock debris far out into the ocean basin. 

Between the glacial marine zones found in the North Atlantic 

cores the sediments consist chiefly of foraminiferal ooze or marl, 

much like that which is forming today in the same area. 

The uppermost glacial marine zone is represented in c,tl the 

cores except Nos. 3 and 11 and lies just below the upper vclcanic 

ash zone. In cores 4 to 7 the glacial zones are relatively thin and 

are spaced at approximately equal intervals; between the third 

and fourth glacial zones (in descending order) is the lower volcanic 

ash. East of the mid-Atlantic ridge only the uppermmt glacial 

zone has been identified. Other glacial marine deposits are 

recognizable but their correlation is less certain. 

Three interpretations are offered as possible explanations of 

the four glacial marine zones. The first is that each glacial 

marine zone represents a distinct glacial stage of the Pleistocene 

and that each zone of foraminiferal marl separating two glacial 

marine zones represents an interglacial stage. This inte~pretation seems least probable of the three. The second interpretation 

is that the upper two glacial marine zones and the intervening 

sediment may correspond to the bipartite Wisconsin stage, 

whereas the lower two represent distinct glacial stages of the 

Pleistocene separated from each other and from the zone representing the Wisconsin stage by sediments that represent interglacial epochs no greater in length than postglacial time. This 

interpretation seems to imply too short a time for most of the 

Pleistocene epoch. The third interpretation, which is favored 

by the authors, is that each of the four glacial marine zones 

represents only a substage of the Wisconsin stage. This implies 

that the North Atlantic at approximately 50° north latitude for 

comparatively long periods of time alternately contained an 

abundance of drift ice and then was quite, or nearly free of ice, 

while on land a continental ice sheet persisted, though it alternately waned and grew. 

In the four cores in which the postglacial sediments are 

thickest the pelagic Foraminifera, according to Cushman and 

Henbest, reveal an interesting condition. These organisms 

indicate that during the middle part of the postglacial interval 

the temperature of the surface water in that part of the North 

Atlantic was somewhat higher than prevails today. 

On the assumptions that the top of the uppermost glacial 

marine zone represents the beginning of the postglacial epoch as 

defined by Antevs, and that this was probably as much as 9,000 

years ago, the postglacial sediment in these cores accumulated 

at a rate of about 1 centimeter in 265 years; but, because the sea 

probably cleared of detritus-laden drift ice long b~fore the land 

in the same latitude was cleared of the retreating continental · 

ice sheet, the average rate of accumulation may have been as 

low as 1 centimeter in 500 years. 

Coarse-grained sediment on the tops of ridges and fine-grained 

sediment in the deeper basins indicate that currents move across 

these ridg~s with sufficient velocity to winnow out the finer 

particles and sweep them into deeper basins beyond. 

The fact that the glass shards in the volcanic ash zones have 

been reworked and distributed without any gradation in size 

through many centimeters of the overlying sediments leads us 

to believe that mud-feeding animals are continually working over 

these shards and other particles of sand and silt so that they are 

redistributed at successively higher levels. The shards and other 

particles may also be reworked by gentle bottom currents that 

move the material from mounds and ridges on the sea floor and 

drift it about over the adjacent flatter areas. 

Severe..! layers in the cores are sharply set off by the coarser 

grain size of the sediment or by a regular gradation in gr'ain size 

from coarsest at the base to fine at the top. These may be a 

result of submarine slumping. 

· The term globigerina ooze is used loosely in this report to 

designate sediment, half or more than half of which, by weight, 

consists of Foraminifera. This usage accords more closely with 

Vll 
VIII SUMMARY OF THE REPORT 

the usage adopted by Correns in the Meteor reports than with 

the. usage of Murray and Chumley in the Challenger reports, 

which was based solely on the carbonate content. Limy muds 

containing a lesser but still conspicuous number of Foraminifera 

are referred to as foraminiferal marl. The carbonate content 

of the globigerina ooze in these cores ranges from 46.6 to 90. 3 

perc~nt and averages 68.2 percent. In 191 samples representing 

all the lithologic types, the carbonate content ranges from 10.0 

to 90.3 percent and averages 41.3 percent. Coccoliths are 

abundant in many parts of the cores, but by reason of their small 

size they rarely make up as much as 10 percent of the sediment 

Pteropods are rather numerous in parts of the cores taken on the 

mid-Atlantic ridge and on the continental slope off the Irish 

coast. 

Most of the calcium carbonate in these sediments consists of 

the tests and comminuted fragments of calcareous organisms. 

Th~ fi~est particles of carbonate are of indeterminate origin, but 

their Irregular shape and range in size suggest that they are 

largely the finest debris of the comminuted organisms rather 

than a chemical precipitate. Clusters or rosettes of calcium 

carbonate crystals were found in many samples, but they are not 

abundant. They evidently formed in the mud on the sea floor. 

No conclusive evidence of an increase in magnesium carbonate 

with depth was found, though some of the data suggest it. The 

magnesium carbonate is somewhat more abundant in the glacial 

marine zones than elsewhere, but its concentration in those zones 

is probably accounted for by the presence of clastic grains and 

pebbles of dolomite. 

Diatom frustules, radiolarian skeletons, and sponge spicules 

are the most common siliceous organic remains found in the 

cores, and these generally form less than 1 percent of the sediment. One notable exception is the sediment in the middle part 

of core 9, just east of the mid-Atlantic ridge, which contains 50 

percent or more of diatoms. 

Ellipsoidal and elongate or cylindrical pellets that appear to 

be fecal pellets are plentiful in the mud at the tops of cores 10 

and 12, taken in the eastern part of the North Atlantic, but 

were not found elsewhere. No attempt was made to identify 

them further. 

The sand-size material showed no marked variation in the 

mineral composition of the clastic grains at different horizons 

within individual cores a_nd no conspicuous lateral variation 

from core to core. The mineral grains in the sand-size portions 

were not separated into light and heavy fractions, but simple 

inspection showed· that grains of the heavy minerals are somewhat more common in the glacial marine deposits than elsewhere. Well-rounded sand grains are sparsely scattered through 

all the cores, but they are rather more plentiful in the glacial 

marine zones. These grains, which range in diameter from about 

0.1 to 1.0 millimeter and average 0.5 millimeter, have more or 

less frosted surfaces. They may have been derived from the 

reworking of glacial marine deposits or they may have been 

rafted by seaweeds. Little was done with the clay minerals 

other than to note that most of them have the optical properties 

of the beidellite or hydrous mica groups. 

Six samples were tested with a 10-inch spectograph, which 

revealed the presence of appreciable amounts of barium and 

somewhat less of boron in each sample. All the samples gave 

negative tests for antimony, beryllium, bismuth, cadmium, germanium, lead, silver, tin, and zinc. 

The original porosity of several samples in core 3 was calculated from the porosity of the dried samples. The original 

porosity plotted against depth in the core seems to indicate that 

fine-grained blue muds buried to a depth of 2 or 3 meters in the 

ocean floor are appreciably compacted. 

Partial mechanical analyses of nearly 200 samples were.· made 

and plotted, but only four complete mechanical analyses were 

made. The complete analyses were made by the sedimentation 

method and include four distinctive types of sediment. 

Pumiceous fragments and smaller shards of basaltic volcanic 

glass (index of refraction near 1.60) are scattered throughout all 

the cores, but are somewhat more common east of the mid-Atlantic ridge than west of it. Unlike the alkalic volcanic ash it 

shows no ,conspicuous concentration in zones. Most of the basaltic glass and pumice has a thin surface alteration film of palagonite. The films are thickest on fragments in cores taken from 

ridges where oxygen-bearing waters had free access to the sediments. Two varieties of palagonite are recognized. 

Core 11 represents only· 34 centimeters of the sea floor because 

the core bit encountered deeply altered olivine basalt. About 

15 centimeters of globigerina ooze rests on and within irregular 

cavities of the upper surface of a mass of clay that is apparently 

altered basalt. This clay is impregnated with manganese and 

contains nodular lumps of altered basalt. Part of the basalt 

near the base of the core is less altered. The clay contains scattered grains of sand and foraminiferal shells in which the original 

calcium carbonate has been replaced by a zeolite resembling phillipsite. This core may have penetrated the upper, deeply altered 

part of a submarine lava flow, but the evidence is not conclusive. 

Core 10 contains two rather thick beds of distinctive clayey 

mud. About half of this mud is a beidellite or hydrous mica 

type of clay and the other half is made up of silt-size particles of 

basaltic glass, magnetite, augite, and calcic plagioclase. It 

contains very little common clastic material and exceedingly 

few Foraminifera. The composition and texture suggest that 

this mud was derived largely from a submarine volcanic eruption 

that threw into suspension clay particles perhaps partly from the 

normal sediment and from deeply altered basalt. A complete 

chemical analysis of this mud is given. 

Foraminifera.-From these cores 184 samples representing 

every lith8logic zone were examined for calcareous fossils. All 

but five samples contained Foraminifera. As in existing oceans 

deeper than several hundred meters, pelagic Foraminifera greatly 

outnumber the bottom-dwelling forms, though in variety of form 

and in number of genera and species the bottom forms greatly 

exceed the pelagic. Several zones of relatively pure globigerina 

ooze were found, and many in which the ooze was clayey or sandy. 

Though variations in temperature were reflected by faunal 

changes, the general bathymetric facie'l of the faunas appear to be 

rather uniform throughout each core. The bottom faunas are 

least varied and prolific in cores from the deepest water, whereas 

in cores from the shallowest water they are by far the most 

varied and prolific. Cores from intermediate depths contain 

faunas of intermediate bathymetric facies. These relations to 

depth are, in general, characteristic also of faunas in the existing 

oceans. A few scattered specimens of Elphidium or Elphidiella 

were ~ound. These genera thrive in shallow water, but in these 

cores the shells are so rare, so erratically distributed, and in some 

so poorly preserved that it seems probable they were rafted in by 

seaweeds or ice and therefore have no significance as indicators of 

depth. No species peculiar to the Miocene or Pliocene were 

found. It appears, therefore, that a,ll the sediments penetrated 

by the cores are younger than Pliocene. Alternation of faunas 

that are characteristic of the warm and cold climates of the 

present day indicates great climatic changes during the time 

represented by these cores. The foraminiferal facief! characteristic of cold and warm climates correlate with the alternating 

sequence of glacial-marine and warmer-water sediments indicated 

by .the lithology. This correlation suggests that all the sediments in these cores are of Recent ani Late Pleistocene age. 

Diatomaceae.-Fifty-two species and varieties of diatoms were 

found in these cores. A large percentage of the species are neritic, 

warm~water forms that are foreign to the region today. Several 
SUMMARY OF THE REPORT IX 

alternations of warm-water and cold-water diatom floras occur 

in most of the cores, but their position in the cores is not in 

accord with the alternations of temperature inferred from lithology and foraminiferal facies. It is suggested that this disagreement may be due to the much longer settling time of the diatoms 

and that allowance should be made for it. The time equivalent 

of this difference of phase, as calculated from the vertical displacement necessary for the best approximation to agreement 

between the foraminifera) and lithologic data on the one hand 

and the diatom data on the other is of the order of 23, 000 years. 

This figure appears absurdly high and a figure of several hundred 

years, based on extrapolation of experimentally timed settling 

in a relatively small vessel, is considered more reasonable. The 

action of cold and warm currents, some surficial and some deep 

seated, is suggested as the possible cause of the apparently erratic 

distribution of the diatoms. The possibility that the phase difference of 23,000 years mentioned above is related to shifts of 

ocean currents caused by advances and recessions of drift ice is 

offered as a speculation. Of 52 species and varieties illustrated, 

2 species and 1 variety are described as new. 

Ostracoda.-In preparing a series of samples from the cores for 

the study of the Foraminifera about 175 specimens of Ostracoda 

were found. These belong to 13 genera and 27 species, all living 

forms, though 12 of the species are known also as fossils. Most 

of the ostracodes were found in three cores that were taken in 

the shallowest water (1,280 to 3,230 meters). One of these cores 

(No. 8) was from the top of the mid-Atlantic ridge and the other 

two (Nos. 12 and 13) were from the continental slope southwest 

of Ireland. In the cores from deeper water (3,250 to 4,820 

meters) ostracodes were scattered very sparsely. Like most 

marine ostracodes, all the species found in the cores are bottom 

dwellers. Most of the species are decidedly cold-water forms 

that are found in tropical waters only at great depth, where the 

temperature is near freezing. Northern forms predominate; only 

2 of the species have not previously been known from northern 

waters, and 10 species are definitely Arctic forms. A few species 

that have a wider temperature range live not only in cold waters 

but also in the deep warm water of the Mediterranean. 

The predominance of distinctly cold-water ostracodes and the 

prevalence of Arctic forms suggest that the temperature of the 

water in this part of the North Atlantic was formerly somewhat 

lower. But, as might be expected from the fact that all the 

species in these cores are bottom dwellers, their distribution in 

the cores shows no evident relationship to the cold and warm 

zones indicated by the composition and texture of the sediments 

and by the pelagic Foraminifera. 

Mollusca.-The mollusks recovered from these cores can be 

divided into two groups, the pteropods and the other gastropods 

and pelecypods. The pteropods are by far the more numerous. 

All the specimens of the pelecypods and gastropods, other than 

pteropods, are representatives of deep-water species that are now 

living in the same boreal or cold-temperate waters. Also, the 

fragments that could not be identified specifically belong to forms 

that have congeners now living in these waters. The fauna of 

these cores, even that taken from the lower parts of the cores, 

shows no appreciable difference from that now living in the same 

localities. Among these mollusks no evidence of shallower or 

considerably deeper water is demonstrable. Molluscan remains, 

other than those of pteropods, are too scarce to attempt to 

differentiate cold- and warm-water facies, as was done with the 

foraminiferal faunas. 

The Pteropoda, which are far more abundant in the cores than 

the other mollusks, belong to two genera and three species. One 

of the species is new. The geographic distribution of the pteropods is limited more by the temperature of the surface water 

than by any other factor. Nevertheless, as one species is cos-· 

mopolitan, one boreal, and one a new species thought to be the 

298628-42-2 

northern analogue of a more southern species and as all three 

species occur together, they have no significance for differentiating cold- and warm-water facies. These organisms are ·pelagic 

and their shells have a rather wide distribution, but, as they are 

found on the sea floor at depths ranging from 247 to 3, 750 meters, 

they are of little aid as indicators of depth of the ocean at the 

time these deposits were laid down. 

Echinodermata.-The remains of 9 species of Echinodermata 

were found in the cores. These include 1 ophiuroid, 7 echinoids, 

and 1 crinoid. No remains of asteroids were found. All the 

echinoderms found belong to species now living in that part, or 

adjacent parts, of the North Atlantic. Echinoderm remains are 

rather uniformly distributed among the cores, but they are most 

numerous in core 8, which was taken in 1,280 meters of water 

on the crest of the mid-Atlantic ridge. By far the commonest 

species is Pourtalesia miranda, remains of which were found in 

nearly two-thirds of the 82 echinoderm-bearing samples and in 

all the cores except 8 and 11. 

Because the association of species in the ·cores is closely 

similar to the association of living species in that part of the 

North Atlantic and because the association of species within each 

core is independent of the distance below the top of the core it 

appears that neither the distribution nor the composition of the 

echinoderm fauna has changed significantly during the interval 

represented by these cores. No evident relationship was found 

between the distribution of the various species of echinoderms 

and the cold- and warm-water facies of the sediments indicated 

by both the Foraminifera and the lithology. 

Miscellaneous fossils and significance of faunal distribution.-

The principal fossil groups represep.ted in the cores, listed in 

order of abundance, are foraminifers, diatoms, echinoids, siliceous 

sponges, radiolarians, ophiuroids (spines and plates) ostracodes, 

and pteropods. Remains of barnacles, brachiopods, pelecypods, 

holothuroids, bryozoans, gastropods, and teleost fishes (otoliths) 

were also found, but all these are rare. The foraminifers, diatoms, ostracodes, echinoderms, pelecypods, and gastropods were 

studied separately by specialists. The other groups are briefly 

noted and illustrated for the sake of the record. The most 

varied and prolific faunas were found in the three cores that 

were taken from the shallowest water and the least varied and 

least prolific were found in those from the deepest water. The 

bottom-living faunas throughout each core have a broadly similar bathymetric facies, and the bathymetric facies of each core 

appears to correspond to that of the fauna now inhabiting that 

locality. Faunas having the characteristics of very shallowwater marine faunas are either absent or, if present, are so rare 

and erratically distributed that they appear to be foreign in 

origin rather than indigenous. Ostracodes and pteropods are 

locally abundant in the cores from the shallower water, but are 

absent or rare at all horizons in those from the deeper water. 

The distribution and bathymetric facies of the faunas weigh 

heavily against the hypothesis of extreme changes in ocean 

level during the later part of the Pleistocene. 

Organic matter content.-The content of organic matter, as 

determined from 123 samples, ranges from 0.1 to 1.0 percent of 

the total weight of the sediments, and the average is about 0.5 

percent. As in near-shore sediments, it is influenced by the 

configuration of the sea bottom. It is small on ridges and large 

in the deeps. It is particularly large in the sediments at the 

base of the east slopes of ridges, owing in part probably, to 

material washed from the vicinity of the ridges by eastwardsweeping ocean currents. The organic matter content of the 

. upper layers of the sediments in the abyssal deeps is greater 

for a few hundred miles east of the mid-Atlantic ridge than it 

is for a similar distance west of the ridge. The organic content 

does not vary consistently with depth except in core three, 

taken at the foot of the continental slope east of the Grand 
.\ SUMMARY OF THE REPORT 

Banks, where it seems to decrease about 25 percent in the first 

1.5 meters. The organic matter content of the sediments tends 

to be greater in the warm zones, than in the cold zones, and in 

general it is slightly greater in sediments which, according to 

Cushman's determination of the Foraminifera, were probably 

deposited in areas in which the surface water was relatively 

warm. The organic content is rather closely related to the 

texture, and increases with increasing fineness of the sediments. 

The rate of deposition of organic matter is greater east of the 

mid-Atlantic ridge than west of it, presumably owing in part 

to a greater supply of plankton and in part to a slower rate of 

decomposition of the organic matter after it is laid down in the 

sediments. The slower rate of decomposition within the sediments is inferred from the greater state of reduction of the 

sediments, which is indicated by the nitrogen-reduction ratio. 

The nitrogen-reduction ratio suggests a slight increase in state 

of reduction with increasing depth of burial in the upper part 

of the deposits, _but indicates no significant change in the lower 

part. The percentage of organic content tends to increase as 

the percentage of Foraminifera in the sediments decreases, but 

it shows no relationship to the calcium-carbonate content. 

Selenium conteut and chemical analyses.-As a part of a comprehensive investigation of the distribution of selenium in marine 

sediments and soils derived from them complete fusion analysfs 

were made of 20 samples from the suite of 11 cores. These 

samples were taken from the tops of the cores and at intervals of 

approximately 1 and 2 meters below the top. In addition, 1 

core taken on the continental shelf off Ocean City, Md., and 3 

cores from the Bartlett Deep were sampled and analyzed, making 

a total of 31 analyses. The results of the analyses include all 

the normal analytical data obtained in a so-called complete soil 

analysis by the fusion method, and, in addition, determinations 

of organic matter, nitrogen, chlorine (in all but 12 analyses), 

hygroscopic water, and selenium. All the samples were analyzed 

with the entrained sea salts. The core from the continental 

shelf off Ocean City· contained the most selenium-at the top 

0.6 part per million, at 1 meter 1.0, and at 2 meters 2.0 parts per 

million. The samples from the North Atlantic cores showed a 

selenium content ranging from 0.06 to 0.8 part per million. Of 

the samples from the Bartlett Deep one contained 0.2 part per 

million of selenium, but all the others contained less than 0.08 

part per million. No evidence was found of a relation between 

the selenium content and volcanic activity. 

The silica-sesquioxide and silica-alumina ratios are tabulated 

and their significance as means of comparing the analyses is 

discussed. 
FOREWORD 

By C. S. PIGGOT 1 

During the last cruise (1927-29) of the nonmagnetic 

ship Carnegie of the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism of the Carnegie Institution of Washington a 

number of samples of the deep ocean bo-ttom were 

obtained by means of the telegraph snapper. The 

Geophysical Laboratory determined the radium content 

of these samples and found that they contained a concentration of radium 2 as astonishingly high as that 

reported by Joly 3 and Pettersson 4 from similar samples 

taken by the Challenger and Princess Alice II. This 

high radium concentration in the surface layer of the 

ocean bottom, which constitutes 72 percent of the surface of the globe, raises questions of great significance 

to both oceanography and geophysics. An obvious 

question is whether radium in so high a concentration is 

present down through all deep-sea sediments or only 

at the surface. 5 If the first hypothesis is correct it 

indicates the presence of uranium throughout the sediments,, whereas the second indicates the existence of 

radium itself, presumably separated out from the sea 

water. The study of this question requires samples of a 

type analogous to the cores so extensively used in subsurface exploration on land. Inquiries among oceanographic organizations established the fact that although 

some cores a meter or more in length had been obtained 

from relatively shallow water, many of them were much 

distorted by the time they reached the laboratory, and 

none as long as 1 meter had been obtained from a depth 

of 4,000 meters or more.6 Those engaged in such research 

emphasized the need of apparatus capable of obtaining 

undist<>rted cores from great depths. In 1933 the 

Council of the Geological Society of America approved a 

grant for the development of such apparatus.7 Fortunately, cooperation was obtained from several special 

1 Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington. 

• Piggot, C. S., Radium conten~ of ocean-bottom sediments: Am. Jour. Sci., 5th 

ser., vol. 25, pp. 229-23S, 1933. 

a Joly, J., On the radium content of deep-ses sediments: Philos. Mag., vol. 16, pp. 

100..197, 1908. 

t Pettersson, Hans, Tenf'ur en radium des depots de mer profonde: Resultats de 

Campagnes Sc!entifiques par Albert I er Prince Souverain de Monaco, vol. 81, 1930. 

a Piggot, C. s .. op. cit., p. 233. 

e Since these inquiries were made D. Wolansky has published her review in the 

Geologische Rundschau (Band 24, Heft 6, p. 399, 1933), in which sbe refers to the work 

of A. D. Archanguelsky in the Black Sea (Soc. Naturalistes Moscow Bull., new ser., 

vol. 35, pp. 264-281, 1927). W olansky mentions cores 3 to 4 meters long from depths 

of 2,237 meters See also Wiss. Ergeb. Deutsehen Atlantischen Exped. J...feteor, 

1925-2'7, Band 3, Teil2, Lief. 1, pp. 4-28, 1935. 

7 Piggot, C. S., Apparatus to secure core samples from the ocean bottom: Geol. 

Soc. America Bull., vol. 47, pp. 67~, 1936. 

agencies, particularly the Burnside Laboratory of the 

E. I. du Pont de Nemours, whose ballistics expert, Dr. 

B. H. Mackey, offered fundamental suggestions and ' 

made many essential calculations and tests; also the 

United States Bureau of Lighthouses, from whose lightship tender, the S. S. Orchid, many experimental soundings were made. Several forms of the apparatus were 

developed and tested, and in August 1936 14 satisfuetory 

cores were obtained from the canyons in the continental 

shelf off New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland, and 

another from the 'Oeean floor below 2,500 meters of 

water.8 This first deep-sea test was made possible by 

the cooperation of the Woods Hole Oeeanographic 

Institution and was carried out in connection with an 

investigation of the submarine canyons by H. C. Stetson 

of that institution. This test demonstrated the f8asibility of the apparatus as built but suggested some 

minor changes in design. These were in corpora ted in 

another apparatus, which was put aboard the cable ship 

Lord Kelvin at Halifax, Nova Scotia. Through the 

courtesy of Mr. Newman Carlton, Chairman of the 

Board of Directors of the Western Union Telegraph Co., 

the Carnegie Institution of Washington was invited to 

have a member of its staff aecompany the Lord Kel~in 

while that ship was engaged in making repairs to the 

North Atlantic cables, in order to test the apparatus in 

deep water. This offer was gladly accepted, and in 

May and June of 1936 I was on board the Lord Kelvin 

with the apparatus. 

Because of the personal interest and cooperation of 

the commanding officer, Lt. Comdr. Bredin Delap, . 

Royal Navy, retired, the undertaking was more suceessful than had been anticipated, and a suite of 11 

excellent cores was obtained, extending from the Grand 

Banks of Newfoundland to the continental shelf southwest of Ire]and. 

All but two of these cores (Nos. 8 and 11) are more 

than 2.43 meters (8 feet) long, and all contain ample 

material for study. Of the two short cores, No. 8 was 

taken from the top of the Faraday Hills, as that part 

of the mid-Atlantic ridge is known, where the material 

is elosely packed and more sandy and consequently 

more resistant; No. 11 came from a locality where the 

1 Cushman, J. A., Henbest, L. G., aL.d Lohman, K. E., Notes on a core sample from 

the Atlantic Ocean bottom southeast of New York City: Geol. Soc. America Bull., 

vol. 48, pp. 1297-1306, 1937. 

XI 
XII FOREWORD 

apparatus apparently landed on volcanic rock that may 

be part of a submarine lava flow. Soundings at the 

localities where the cores were taken show depths ranging from 1,280 meters at the top of the Faraday Hills to 

4,820 meters in the deep water between the Inid-Atlantic 

ridge and the continental shelf. 

The thorough test made possible by the interested 

cooperation of everyone on board the Lord Kelvin fully 

demonstrated the capacity of the apparatus and produced material from strata of ocea~ic sediments deeper 

than have ever before been available. 

In order that this pioneer material might be examined to the best advantage and an adequate estimate 

made of the potentialities of cores of this type, a group of 

investigators representing various fields of science was 

invited to examine them. Efforts have been made to 

arrange the sequence of these investigations in such a 

way that the maximum information may be obtained 

with the minimum destruction of the samples. 

The cores are now at the Geophysical Laboratory of 

the Carnegie Institution of Washington, where they and 

others that may be obtained by this laboratory will be 

held available for further research. 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION 

By w. H. BRADLEY 

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE INVESTIGATION 

The long cores of deep-sea sediment considered in 

this report represent a longer span of the earth's late 

geologic history, as recorded in abyssal sediments, than 

has been heretofore accessible. In a measure, therefore, this study has been exploratory. Because of that exploratory aspect we have not only presented the observations but also have deliberately speculated upon various 

possible interpretations of the features observed in the 

cores and upon their relations with one another. Because the cores are few in number and widely spaced, 

we offer many of the interpretations not as definite 

conclusions but rather as suggestions to be tested by 

whatever coring may be done in the future in that part 

of the North Atlantic. 

From this investigation it appears that glacial marine 

deposits may prove to be sensitive indicators of the climatic changes that caused the growth and deca.y of 

continental ice sheets during the Pleistocene. In particular, it seems that the glacial marine record may 

throw light on the climatic fluctuations that determined substages of the Pleistocene. The marine 

record was the result of a continuously operating series 

of causes such that the deposits of each glacial substage 

were separated from one another by the deposits of the 

intervening warmer substage. The record of each 

substage has remained intact and was not obliterated 

by readvances of the ice. As the equatorward extent 

of the glac.ial n1arine deposits implies a corresponding 

expansion of continental ice sheets, the extent of the 

deposits may be used as a measure of the intensity of 

the climatic changes, and their thickness may be used 

as a rough indicator of the duration of glacial substages. 

Similarly, the thickness and poleward extent of tongues 

of nonglacial sediment-the foraminiferal marl-are 

measures of deglaciation. The areal extent of these 

tongues of sediment can be determined by additional 

cores taken at properly located stations. 

When the glacial marine record is more fully known 

it should provide a basis for correlating the Pleistocene 

history of Europe and North America. 

Cores taken along the meridians in series extending 

from the Arctic regions into the tropical parts of the 

Atlantic should make. it possible to map the southern 

limits of pack ice in the sea during successive glacial 

maxima, at least for the later part of the Pleistocene. 

As the pelagic Foraminifera in these abyssal sediments 

are reliable indicators of surface-water temperatures in 

the Recent and Pleistocene epochs, it should be possible 

to trace southward into the tropics layers or beds of 

foraminiferal ooze that are the time equivalents of 

glacial marine zones. Such layers of foraminiferal ooze 

could then be correlated with the layer of globigerina 

ooze in the tropics that Schott 9 identified as a relatively cold-water deposit that probably represents the 

last glacial epoch of the Pleistocene. 

The study of elimatology as well as geology may be 

advanced by the information to be derived from long 

sea-bottom cores. Significant evidence bearing on postglacial climatic changes may be obtained from minutely 

detailed study of the Foraminifera in cores taken in 

parts of the ocean where postglacial sedimentation has 

been comparatively rapid, as, for example, near the 

seaward edge of the blue-mud zone. On the assumption that such sedirnent accumulates at an essentially 

uniform rate, climatic fluctuations may be located approximately in time within the postglacial interval and 

rnay be correlated frorn place to place along the ocean 

margins from the Arctic to temperate or even tropical 

latitudes and perhaps also from continent to continent. 

Archeology, also, might profit from the 'knowledge 

of a relatively timed and correlated sequence of climatic changes, for such changes may well have made a 

significant impress on the habits and migrations of 

peoples, particularly those that dwelt in regions where 

small changes in either temperature or rainfall were 

critical. As I have pointed out in an earlier paper, 10 

students of arche(1logy and early history, particularly in 

the Mediterranean region, might profit much from 

detailed studies of long cores of the sediment in the 

deep basins of the Mediterranean. In cores from that 

sea, as elsewhere, changes in the foraminiferal faunas 

would indicate climatic changes, and the sediments 

would yield, in addition, evidence of volcanic eruptions 

and earthquakes. The time when the Sahara became 

a desert should also be recorded in the Mediterranean 

sediments by wind-blown sand. Such a change might 

conceivably be integrated with the wealth of archeo9 Schott, W ., Die Foraminiferen in dem aquatorialen Teil des Atlantischen Ozeans: 

Wiss. Ergeb. Deutschen Atlantischen Exped. Meteor, 1925-27, Band 3, Teil3, Lief. 1, 

pp. 120-128,1935. 

10 Bradley, W. H . .'Mediterranean sediments and Pleistocene sea levels: Science 

new ser., vol. 88, pp. 376-379, 1938. 

X Ill 
XIV GENERAL INTRODUCTION 

logical records of the region, and the later volcanic 

eruptions and earthquakes might be correlated with 

early history. 

Some of the probleJ;Ils sketched so briefly here are 

touched upon in the several chapters of this report, 

but most of them must be left for future investiga.tors. 

Nevertheless, methods by which such problems may 

be attacked a.re described and discussed a.t considerable 

length, particula.rly in the cha.pters on "Lithology and 

geologic interpretations" and "Foraminifera." 

LOCATION OF THE CORE STATIONS 

The cores were taken along a slightly irregular line 

between the easternmost part of the Newfoundland 

Banks and the banks off the southwest coast of Ireland, 

as shown in plate 1. Each core obtained by the Piggot 

coring device is numbered to correspond with the station 

number of the cable ship Lord Kel1in. Stations 1 and 

2 were trial stations at which preliminary tests were 

made to familiarize the crew with the apparatus, and 

no cores were preserved. The 11 cores studied are 

numbered consecutively, 3 to 13. The relation between 

w. 

M. N. Bramlette, J. A. Cushman, L. G. Henbest, K. E 

Lohman:, and P. D. Trask. As the biologic phase of 

the work progressed it became evident that other 

organisms than the foraminifers and diatoms should be 

studied. Accordingly Mr. Henbest invited Dr. Willis 

L. Tressler, of the University of Buffalo, to examine the 

ostracodes, Dr. Austin H. Clark of the United States 

National Msueum, to examine the echinoderms, and 

Dr. Harald A. Rehder, also of the United States 

National Museum, to examinu the mollusks. 

The organic ma.tter content of the sediments was 

studied by Mr. Trask in collaboration with Messrs. 

H. Whit1man Patnode, Jesse LeRoy Stimson, and John 

R. Gay, all members of the American Petroleum 

Institute. 

As part of a comprehensive research project on the 

distribution of selenium in marine sediments and tlie 

soils derived from them Dr. H. G. Byers and Mr. G~en 

Edgington, of the Bureau of Chemistry and Soils, 

United States Department of Agriculture, made complete chemical analyses of 20 samples from these deepsea cores. These analyses, together with analyses of 

ST. JOHNS 

NEWFOUNDLAND · 

MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE 

"FARADAY HILLS" E. 

Meters 3 45 6 7 8 9 10 11 

0 

5,000 IO,,_jo '---'--'o__L__,_.L__,_.L__o__L__,~o Statute miles 

FIGURE 1.-Profile across the North Atlantic Ocean along the line of the numbered core stations shown on plate l. 

the core stations and the submarine topography is 

shown in figure 1, which is a profile along the dashed 

line in plate 1 that connects the stations and extends 

from St. Johns, Newfoundland, to Lands End, EnglandY 

TABLE 1. -Geographic location, length of the cores, and depth of 

the water from which they were taken · 

Core number 

3_------------------------------------ 4_------------------------------------ 5 ___ ---------------------------------- 6 ___ -- --------------------------------

7-------------------------------------

g_ ------------------------------------

9 -- ----------------------------------

10 ----------------------------------- lL __ -------------- _______ ------------

12 __ ---------------------------------- 13,-----------------------------------

Depth 

of water {meters) 

4, 700 

3, 955 

4.820 I 4, 125 3, 250 

1, 280 

3, 745 1 

4. 190 

1

. 

4, 820 

3, 230 

1, 955 

Length I 

of core (meters) 

2. 81 

2. 71 2.82 

2. 90 

2.62 

1. 24 2. 76 2.97 

.34 

2.43 

2. 21 

Lat. N. 

46°0 :•no" 48°2'.1'00" 

48°38'00" 

49°0:l'30" 

49°32'00" 

49°36'00" 

49°40'00" 

49°45'00" 

48°38'00" 

49°37'00" 

49°38'00" 

Long. W. 

43°23'00" 

35°54'30'' 

36°01'00" 

32°44'30" 

29°21'00" 

28°54'00" 

28°29'00" 

23°30'30" 

17°09'00" 

13°34'00" 

13°28'00'' 

PERSONNEL AND COMPOSITION OF THE REPORT 

At the request of Dr. C. S. Piggot, of the Geophysical 

Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, 

the following six members of the United States Geologica.! Survey undertook a systematic study of the 11 

deep-sea cores fron1 the North Atlantic: W. H. Bradley, 

samples from several other deep-sea cores and a discussion of the occurrence of selenium, are included in 

the chapter on "Selenium content and chemical 

analyses." 

METHODS OF SAMPLING AND EXAMINATION 

The Piggot coring device 12 takes the cores in brass 

sampling tubes that have an inside d~ameter of 4.9 em. 

As soon as a core :is taken, the tube is cut off at the 

approxi1nate length of the core and sealed. The cores 

here discussed were opened under Dr. Piggot's direction 

at the Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. A longitudinal cut was made 

along one side of each brass core barrel by means of a 

milling cutter so adjusted that it did not cut quite 

through the wall of the tube. The thin strip remaining 

was then ripped out without letting brass chips get 

into the core. After allowing the mud cores to dry 

somewhat, but not enough to shrink away from the 

tube walls, the cores and core barrels were cut in ha.lf 

longitudinally with a metal-cutting band saw. In this 

cutting, the milled slot was held uppermost so that the 

saw cut only the lower wall of the core barrel and 

threw the cuttings downward,· away from the core. n Data for plate 1 and figure 1 were taken from International Hydrograpbir Bun•au, I 

Carte Generale Bathymetrique des Oceans, 3d erl. .. shee>ts A-1 and B-1, copies of 12 Piggot, C. S., Apparatus to secure core samples from the ocean bottom: Geol. 

which were furnished by the U. S Hydrographic Office. Soc. America Bull., vol. 47, pp. 675-684, 1936. 
60' 

GIIOLOGICAL BUBVIlY 

60° 20° 

PROFESSIONAL PAPER 196 PLATE 1 

10° 

·- ,_ __ "" 

60° 

\\\. 

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/ 

) 

"- _) 

D 

Sea level to 

500 meters 

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,_ r-· 

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r'/ --

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) 

c', ·-\, ( 

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500-2,000 

meters 

( 

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~ 

/ 

~"-----·~-~\?"'-........' 

l \ 

'--· 

(! 

1., \ 

L>. ' 

D 

2,000-4,000 

meters 

i 

BATHYMETRIC CHART OF A PART OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN. 

' \..~ 

) 

t! ~; 

<.c> 

{) 

D 

4,000- 6POO+ 

meters 

The numbered circle• indicate the core atations. The daohed line connecting them is the line of tbe profile shown in figure 1. Tbe light dotted line along tbe coasts ia tbe 200-meter depth contour. The uauallimit of drift ice ia abown by tbe heavy dotted line. Tbe small triangles indicate tbe poaition of iceberg• reported far beyond their normal ran1e during tbe period January 1900 to July 1916, according to information compiled by J. T. Jenkioa (A Textbook of Oceanography, fi1. 14, London, Comtahle & Co., 1921). 

U.S. GOVERNhiENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1940-0·228324 

40° 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 

W. 

0 

2 

Meters 

3 4 

PROFESSIONAL PAPER 196 PLATE 2 

5 6 7 8 9 10 II 12 13 

E. 

LONGITUDINAL SECTIONS OF TilE AIR-DRIED CORES. 

Half of the core barrel was removed from core 11, hut the core itself was not cut. Photograph by Geovhysical Laboratory, Carnegie Insti tution of \Vashington. 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION XV 

Each half core then remained undisturbed in its half 

cylinder cradle of brass core barrel. (See pl. 2.) 

As several months elapsed between the time the cores 

were opened and the time this investigation began, the 

mud had ·dried thoroughly when Mr. K. E. Lohman 

took a succession of overlapping photographs of each 

core, about one fifth natural size. These photographs 

were then assembled as a key chart upon which were 

marked the parts from which samples for all phases of 

the investigation were taken. The dried segments of 

mud shifted somewhat from their original places each 

time samples were removed, though care was taken 

to see that during sampling the segments kept their 

original order and orientation. By reference to this 

photographic key the findings of all the investigators 

have been correlated. 

Most of the material was hard enough to be sawed 

into blocks with a hack saw, but a few of the most 

friable parts were sampled with Rmall channel-shaped 

scoops of sheet metal after the loose material on the 

surface had been brushed away. 

Samples for all phases of this investigation were 

taken from only one half of each core, the other half 

being held intact in the Geophysical Laboratory. 

. GEOLOGY AND BIOLOG-Y OF NORTH ATLANTIC DEEP-SEA CORES 

BETWEEN NEWFOUNDLAND AN.D IRELAND 

PART 5. MOLLUSCA 

By HARALD A. REHDER 1 

INTRODUCTION 

The species of pelecypods and gastropods described 

in part 5 were found in the series of deep-sea cores that 

were collected in 1936 between Newfoundland and the 

British Isles by C. S. Piggot, of the Carnegie Institution 

of Washington. The location, physical character, and 

method of sampling of these cores are described in the 

introductory chapter of this professional pap~r. 

The specimens of mollusks were obtained from the H 

series of samples that were originally prepared for the 

Foraminifera. The sampling and preparatory methods 

are described in part 2, Foraminifera, by Cushman and 

Hen best. The location and stratigraphic position of the 

samples and the general faunal characteristics of the 

cores are given in part 7, Miscellaneous fossils and significance of faunal distribution, by L. G. Henbest and 

these data are graphically summarized on plate 21. 

The following list is exhaustive for the H series of 

samples but must not be considered a complete enumeration of the mollusks possibly present in the sediment 

of that part of the North Atlantic, for only a fraction of 

each core was available for a study of the invertebrate 

organisms. This incompleteness is, of course, especially 

true of the Pelecypoda and of the Gastropoda other than 

Pteropoda, for each species is represented by only a 

single specimen whose presence is more or less a matter 

of chance. The three pteropods, all of which were represented by numerous individuals in the cores, apparently constitute the sole members of this group 

present. 

DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES 

PELECYPOD A 

Yoldiella insculpta Jeffreys, 1879 

Plate 23, figures 3, 4 

A single valve, of what is apparently this species, was 

found in core 12, sample H-134, taken in 3,230 meters 

(1, 770 fathoms) of water. This species was originally 

described from material dredged by the Porcupine exI United States National Museum. Published by permission of the Secretary of the 

Smithsonian Institution. 

298628-42-3 

pedition of 1870, at stations 16, 17, and 17a, about 25 

to 30 miles off the coast of central Portugal at depths of 

1,350 to 2,000 meters. This locality is considerably 

east and south of the site of core 12, but the range of a 

great many of the deep-water mollusks does extend 

across the Atlantic Ocean. Moreover, the valve was 

taken from a sample lying in one of the slightly warmer 

water zones, as· determined by Cushman and Henbest 

from the Foraminifera (pt. 2, fig. 20). 

Y oldiella expansa Jeffreys, 1876 

Pia te 23, figures 1, 2 

A minute, glassy, translucent valve, about 1.8 millimeters long, closely resembling this species was found in 

san1ple H-133a of core 12. The type locality of expansa is station 13, Valorous expedition, 1875, in 1,260 

meters of water southeast of the tip of Greenland. 

Other specimens in the Jeffreys collection were found 

off the tip of Greenland at depths ranging from 2,650 

to 3,200 meters. Jeffreys also cites its occurrence at 

depths of 2,150 to 2,520 meters off the northwest coast of 

Ireland. The present specimen, coming from a depth 

of 3,230 meters off the southwest coast of Ireland, fits 

well into the known geographic and bathymetric range 

of this species. The type measures about 4.4 millimeters in length, but the other specimens in the Jeffreys 

collection are considerably smaller and approach the 

present specimen in size. 

Y oldiella s.p. 

This is a fragn1ent, which, frmn the nature of what 

remains of the hinge, seems to belong to this genus. It 

is being noted merely to record the presence of a mollusk in the middle of core 9 in sample H-85, taken in 

3,745 meters of water, southwest of Iceland. 

Limatula sp. 

Fragments of a thin, translucent species were found 

in sample H -143 in core 13, which came from a depth of 

1,955 meters off the southwest tip of Ireland. ·A great 

107 
108 GEOLOGY AND BIOLOGY OF NORTH ATLANTIC DEEP-SEA CORES 

many species of this genus inhabit depths down to 

2,650 meters from Greenland to the Tropics, and these 

fragments undoubtedly belong to one of those deepwater forms. 

GASTROPODA 

ARCHAEOGASTROPODA 

TROCHIDAE 

Genus? 

A broken specimen, of a pure white color, that undoubtedly belongs to this family, was formd in core 13, 

sample H-144. It is too imperfect to describe, but 

judging from the characteristic sculpture and glossy 

white surface of the shell it undoubtedly is a deep-water 

form belonging to a hitherto unrecorded gToup. 

PTEROPODA 

Spiratella retroversa (Fleming), 1823 

' Plate 23, figure 8 

Numerous specimens of this little boreal pteropod 

were found in a great many samples. It was found in 

samples H-62, H-63, and H-64 of core 8, taken at a 

depth of 1,280 meters and in samples H-132, II-133a, 

and H-133b of core 12, taken at a depth of 3,230 meters. 

Pelseneer/ in his treatment of the Pteropoda of the 

Challenger expedition, gives for this species a North 

Atlantic range extending from the Arctic region to 

lVIassachusetts Bay on the American side and to southern England on the European side. These cores, 

therefore, fall well within the present range of this 

species. 

Spiratella planospira, n. sp. 

Plate 23, figures 5-7 

The shell is minute, broadly inflated, and thin, with 

a depressed, flattened spire, which is flatter in young 

specimens than in adults; the color is white; the surface 

is glossy and smooth, except for some more or less 

regular subsutural grooves, which disappear farther 

down on the whorl; the sutures are well impressed; the 

aperture is obliquely elongate, limited basally by a 

straight columella; and the umbilicus is deep and rather 

narrow. 

The type, U.S.N .M. No. 535416, has the following 

measuren1ents: Height, 1.2 millimeters; greater diameter, 1.5 millimeters; lesser diameter, 1.3 millimeters. It 

was found in sample H-63 of core 8, collected in 1,280 

meters of water in latitude 49°36' north and longitude 

28°54' west, which is in the middle of the North Atlantic 

Ocean, about midway on a straight line between Eng- · 

land and Cape Race, Newfoundland. 

This species was also found in core 8, samples H-61a, 

H-62, H-63, and H-64 and in core 12, sample H-133a. 

2 Pelseneer, Paul, Report on the Pteropoda-Thecosomata: Challenger Rept., 

Zoology, vol. 23, part 65, p. 28, 1888. 

Most of these specimens are much smaller than the 

type. 

This species is most nearly like Spiratella lesueurii 

d'Orbigny, differing from it in possessing a much flatter 

spire. Our species may be the northern analog of S: 

lesueurii, as that species, according to Pelseneer, occurs 

in the warmer waters of the Atlantic, Indian, and 

Pacific Oceans and is not found in the Atlantic north 

of the Bay of Biscay. In his check list, Johnson 3 gives 

latitude 42° north, or approximat~ly Cape Cod, as the 

northern limit of S. lesueurii on this coast. 

The specin1en figured is not the type, but a smaller, 

more perfect specimen. These specimens are all rather 

fragile. 

Clio pyramidata Linne, 1767 

Pia te 23, figure 9 

This is a very common species found in core 8, sample 

H-64, at a depth of 1,280 meters; core 12, samples 

H-132, H-133a, H-133b, H-133x, and H-134, at a 

depth of 3,230 meters; and core 13, sample H-135, at 

a depth of 1,955 meters. It is considered to have a 

cosmopolitan distribution. 

MISCELLANEOUS PELECYPODS AND GASTROPODS 

In several samples in cores 8 and 13 traces of pelecypods and gastropods were found, but the remains are 

too fragmentary for identification and inclusion in this 

list. 

SIGNIFICANCE OF MOLLUSCA 

The mollusks recovered from these deep-sea cores can 

be readily divided into two groups, (1) the pteropods 

and (2) the other gastropods and the pelecypods. The 

pteropods are more numerous but less significant as 

indicators of depth than the other gastropods and the 

pelecypods. 

All the specimens of the more significant group, 

namely, the pelecypods and the gastropods other than 

the pteropods, are representatives of deep-water species 

that are now living in the same boreal or cold-temperate 

waters. Also the fragments that could not be identified 

specifically belong to forms that have congeners now 

living in these waters. The fauna of these cores, even 

that of samples taken 2.4 meters below the ocean bottom 

(core 12), shows no appreciable difference from that 

now living in the same localities. Among the mollusks 

no evidence of shallower or considerably warnier water 

in these regions is demonstrable. The paucity of 

molluscan remains prevents any confirmation of the 

presence of alternate cold-water and warm-water 

faunules such as was demonstrated for the Foraminifera 

in part 2 of this professional paper. The only evidence 

that the mollusks may agree with such foraminiferal 

facies is found in the presence of a valve of Yoldiella 

a Johnson, C. W., List of marine Mollusca of the Atlantic coast from Labrador to 

Texas: Boston Soc. Nat. Hist. Proc., vol. 40, no. 1, p. 150, 1934. 
PART 5. MOLLUSCA 109 

insculpta Jeffreys, a species from the waters off the 

coast of Portugal, in one of the warm-water zones. 

By far the greater part of the molluscan fauna of 

these cores belongs to the other group, the pteropods. 

The geographic distribution of the pteropods is limited 

more by the temperature of the surface water than by 

any other factor. Inasmuch as these organisms are 

pelagic, the shells have a rather wide distribution, but, 

as they have drifted down from the upper strata of 

water and as their shells are found on the bottom at 

depths ranging from 247 to 3,750 meters (135 to 2,050 

fathoms) ,4 the presence of tliese shells in the cores cannot aid us much in determining the depth of the ocean 

at the time these deposits were laid down. Furthermore, as one species is cosmopolitan, one boreal, and 

one a new species thought to be the northern analog of a 

more southern species, and as all three species occur 

together, they have no significance for differentiating 

cold-water and warm-water facies. 

4 Pelseneer, Paul, op. cit., pp. 17-121. 

PART 6. EOHINODERM~t\. TA 

By AusTIN H. CLARK 1 

INTRODUCTION 

The determination of echinoderm remains consisting 

of dissociated and usually broken plates and spines such 

as occur in these cores appeared at first to offer insuperable difficulties. 

A list was prepared of all the species that n1ight be 

represented by the remains found in the cores, and 

cleaned preparations were made of the species of echinoids and of the arm bones, plates, and spines of the 

ophiurans most likely to be represented in the deposits 

of the North Atlantic. -

After long study it was found that in the irregular 

echinoids the various types of spines in each genus had 

characters by which, with a reasonable degree of certainty, they could be distinguished from the corresponding spines in other genera. It was also found that 

the dissociated arm bones and arm plates of the ophiuran 

possessed similarly diagnostic characters. 

In working out these features in the echinoids Mortensen's memoirs on the Echinoidea of the Ingolf expedition proved invaluable, but the following works were 

consulted also: 

CLARK, AuGUSTIN [=AusTIN] H., The Danish lngolf expedition, 

vol. 4, pt. 5, Crinoidea, pp. 1-58, figs. 1_:.58, Copenhagen, 

1~23. 

CLARK, HuBERT LYMAN, Hawaiian and other Pacific Echini, the 

Pedinidae, Phymosomatidae, Stomopneustidae, Echinidae, 

Temnopleuridae, Strongylocentrotidae, and Echinometridae: 

Harvard CoJl. Mus. Comp. Zoology Mem., vol. 34, No. 4, 

pp. 210-383, pls. 90-121, 1912; Hawaiian and other Pacific 

Echini, the Echinoneidae, Nucleolitidae, Urechinidae, 

Echinocorythidae, Calymnidae, Pourtalesiidae, Palaeostomatidae, Aeropsidae, Palaeopneustidae, Hemiasteridae, 

and Spatangidae: Idem, vol. 46, No. 2, pp. 85-283, pls. 

144-161, 1917. ' 

KoEHLER, R., Echinodermes provenant des campagnes du yacht 

Princesse-Alice (Asteries, Ophiures, Echinides et Crinoides): 

Resultats des campagnes scientifiques accomplies sur son 

yacht par Albert I, Prince souverain de Monaco, fasc. 34, 

pp. 1-317, pls. 1-32, Monaco, 1909. 

MoRTENSEN, TH., The Danish lngolf expedition, vol. 4, pt. 1, 

Echinoidea pt. 1, pp. 1-193,' figs. 1-12, pls. 1-21, Copenhagen, 1903; idem, vol. 4, pt. 2, Echinoidea pt. 2, pp. 1-200, 

figs. 1-27, pls. 1-19, Copenhagen, 1907; idem, vol. 4, pt. 8, 

Ophiuroidea, pp. 1-121, figs. 1-52, pls. 1-3, Copenhagen, 

1933; Handbook of the Echinoderms of the British Isles 

pp. i-ix, 1-471, figs, 1-269, Oxford Univ. Press, 1927. ' 

1 United States National Museum. Published by permission of the Secretary of 

the Smithsonian Institution. 

Most of the genera in the region under consideration 

are represented by only a single speci~s, so that generic 

determination is all that is necessary. In the genus 

Pourtalesia the spine fragments agree minutely with 

corresponding parts of the spines of P. miranda, but 

there is a possibility that some other species may also be 

represented. The characteristic sculpturing on the side 

arm plates and the long, slender distal arm bones of 

Ophiocten sericeum leave no doubt regarding the proper 

identification of that species. 

No specimen of any species of Echinosigra was at 

hand for comparison with the fossil material, and therefore it is possible that some of the spines identified as 

those of Plexechinus hirsutus may be from Echinosigra, 

though I believe them all to be correctly identified. 

It is rather curious that the Asteroidea are not 

represented in any of the cores. 

SPECIES REPRESENTED IN THE CORES 

The following echinoderms are represented in the 

cores: 

Ophiuroidea. 

Ophiolepididae. 

Ophiocten sericeum (Forbes). 

Echinoidea. 

Echinidae. 

Echinus affinis Mortensen. 

U rechinidae. 

Plexechinus hirsutus Mortensen. 

Urechinus naresianus A. Agassiz. 

Pourtalesiidae. 

Pourtalesia miranda A. Agassiz. 

Aeropsidae. 

Aerops1:s rostrata (Norman). 

Aces'te bellidifera W yville Thomson. 

Hemiasteridae. 

Hemiaster expergitus Loven. 

Crinoidea. 

Bo urgueticrinidae. 

Rhizocrinus lofotensis M. Sars. 

ANNOTATED LIST OF SPECIES 

The following notes on the geographic and bathymetric distribution of the genera and species represent 

the information known before the echinoderm fragments 

found in these cores were studied. Species the bathymetric ranges of which have been extended by their 

occurrence in these cores are listed under the heading 

"Bathymetric anomalies" on page 116. 

111 
112 GEOLOGY AND BIOLOGY OF NORTH ATLANTIC DEEP-SEA CORES 

Genus OPHIOCTEN Liitken 

Geographic range: Cosmopolitan in water of low and 

moderate temperatures. 

Bathymetric range: From about 5 to about 4,700 

meters. 

Thermal range: From -1.85° to +13° C., chiefly 

below 4.5° C. 

Number of included species: The genus Ophiocten 

includes 15 species, but a few of these undoubtedly are 

merely local variants of other species. 

Ophiocten sericeum (Forbes) 

Mortensen 2 has shown that Ophiocten signata is a 

synonym of this species, and believes it likely that the 

the subantarctic 0. amitinum as well as 0. hastatum 

from Marion Island and 0. pattersoni from south of 

Martha's Vineyard will prove to be identical with 0. 

sericeum. 

Geographic range: From Hudson Bay, the Canadian 

Arctic Archipelago, Grant Land, and northwestern 

Greenland eastward to the New Siberian Islands and 

·southward in deep water to Georges Bank, off Massachusetts, south of Iceland, and the Bay of Biscay. 

On suitable bottoms in cold water this species 

frequently occurs in immense numbers. 

Bathymetric range: From about 5 to about 4,500 

meters. 

Thermal range: From -1.1° to +9° C., chiefly 

between -1.1° and +4°C. 

Material: The distribution of the fragments of 0. 

sericeum in the cores is shown in table 19. 

TABLE 19.-Distribution of fragments of Ophiocten sericeum in 

the cores 

Core I Sample No Distance fr?m top I Description of fragments No. · of core (centimeters) 

-----------------------------

8 H-69 ____ _ 

8 H-71 _____ _ 

8 H-77 ____ _ 8 H-78 ____ _ 

12 H-133tL--

12 H-133b __ _ 12 H-134 ___ _ 

13 H-137 ___ _ 

42-52 

60--64 

118. 5-121. 5 

121. 5-123. 5 

216-217. 5 

217. 5-223. 5 

236-243 

23. 5-27 

Side arm plates, upper arm plates, and arm spines. 

An arm bone from the distal part of an arm. Arm bone and arm spines. 

Arm bones and side arm plates from near the arm tips. 

Side arm plates. 

Side arm plate. 

A basal arm spine from a large individual. 

Side arm plate. 

Genus ECHINUS Linne 

Geographic range: From Nova Scotia, southeastern 

Greenland, southern Iceland, the Faeroe Islands, and 

Finmark southward to the straits of Florida and Puerto 

Rico, and South Africa; Ascension Island and Tristan 

da Cunha; s,outhern Patagonia and southern Chile; 

the Kermadec Islands (north of N ewZealand) and southern Australia; and eastern and southern Japan. It is 

most strongly represented in the northeastern Atlantic, 

2 Mortensen, Th .. The Danish Ingol[ expedition, vol. 4, pt. 8, p. 97,~ Copenhagen, 1933. 

where 7 species occur. In Antarctic and subantarctic 

regions the genus Echinus is replaced by the closely 

allied genus Sterechinus. 

Bathymetric range: From between tide marks down, 

to 3,184 meters. Most of the species occur in water 

of moderate depth. Littoral species are found only 

in the northeast Atlantic region and in the Mediterranean. .. 

Thermal range: From -1.28° to about +27° C. 

Geologic range: Cretaceous to Recent. 

Number of included species: The genus Echinus 

includes 16 Recent species. 

Echinus affinis Mortensen 

Plate 22, figures 29, 34, 36, 39, 40 

Geographic range: From Cape Hatteras, N. C., 

northward to the Grand Banks, southern Iceland, the 

Faeroe Islands, and the Rockall Bank, and southward 

in the eastern Atlantic to the Azores. 

This species often occurs on the ocean bottom in 

immense numbers. It is exceedingly abundant from 

Cape Hatteras northward to Massachusetts. 

Bathymetric range: From 99 to 3,184 meters. 

Thermal range: From -1.28° (Al_batross station 

3454) to +22.8° C. 

Material: The distribution of the fragments of E. 

affinus is shown in table 20. 

TABLE 20.-Distribution of fragments of Echinus affinis in the cores 

~~~I Samp~ No. 

Distance from top Description of fragments of core (centimeters) 

8 H-6L_ --- Q-1.5 Spine fragments. 

8 H-61a ____ 6-8. 5 Do. 

8 H-62 _____ 8. 5-10. 5 Do. 

8 H-62-63 __ 9-17. 5 Do. 

8 H-63 _____ 10. 5-17. 5 Do. 

8 H-64 _____ 17. 5-21 Do. 

8 H-66 _____ 29-31 Do. 

8 H-67 _- __ - 31-35. 5 Do. 

8 H-68 _____ 35. 5-38 Do. 

8 H-69 __ - -- 45-52 Do. 

8 H-69a ____ 52-58. 5 Do. 

8 H-70_- --- 58. 5-60 Do. 

8 H-72 _____ 71. 5-73. 5 Do. 

8 H-73 _____ 87-90. 5 Do. 

8 H-74 _____ 90. 5-94 Do. 

8 H-76 _____ 111-114. 5 Do. 

8 H-77 _- --- 118. 5-121. 5 Do. 

8 H-78_-- -- 121. 5-123. 5 Do. 

9 H-83_-- -- 79-82 Do. 

9 H-89 _____ 19Q-200. 5 Do. 

12 H-133 ____ 208-213. 5 Do. 

12 H-133a ___ 216-217. 5 Ambulacral plate and spine 

fragments. 

12 H-133b ___ 217. 5-223. 5 Two interambulacral plates 

from the actinal surface, . and spine fragments (pl. 

22, figs. 29, 34, 36, 39, 40). 

12 H-134 ____ 236-243 Spine fragments. 

13 H-135 __ - _ Q-5. 5 Do. 

13 H-138 ____ 41-42. 5 Do. 

13 H-139 ____ 42.5-47 Do. 

13 H-140 ____ 53. 5-60. 5 Do. 

13 H-144 ____ 89-94. 5 Do. 

13 H-145 ____ 94. 5-100: 5 Do. 

13 H-152 ____ 169. 5-173 Do. 
PART 6. ECHINODERMATA 113 

Genus PLEXECHINUS A. Agassiz 

Geographic range: Southwest of the ridge between 

Greenland and Iceland, southwest of Iceland, and 

southwest of The Faeroes; the shores of the Antarctic 

Continent; and the Gulf of California. 

Bathymetric range: From 380 to 2,376 meters. 

Thermal range: From about -1.85° to +6.1° C. 

Geologic range: Known only from the Recent seas. 

Number of included species: The genus Plexechinus 

includes 3 species, which, according to our very meager 

present information, appear to inhabit widely separated 

localities. 

Plexechinus hirsutus Mortensen 

Plate 22, figure 28 

Geographic range: From .east Greenland to The 

Faeroes south of the ridges separating the abysses 

of the North Atlantic from the cold northern deeps. 

Bathymetric range: From 887 to 2,376 meters. 

Thermal range: From 1.6° to 6.1 c C. 

Material: The distribution of fragments of P. hirsutus in the cores is shown in table 21. 

TABLE 21.-Distribution of fragments of Plexechinus hirsutus 

in the cores 

Core Sample No. Distance from top Description of fragments No. of core (centimeters) 

7 H-48 _____ o-7 Spines. 

7 H-49 _____ 19-23 Do. 

7 H--50 _____ 49. 5-54 Do. 

7 H-5L ____ 70. 5-74. 5 Do. 

7 H-53 _____ 107. 5-112 Do. 

7 H-54a ____ 133. 5-139 Do. 

7 H-57 _____ 183-191 Do. 

7 H-58 _____ 203-209 Do. 

7 H-59 _____ 232-240 Do. 

8 H-62 _____ 8. 5-10. 5 Do. 

8 H-63 _____ 10. 5-17. 5 Do. 

9 H=-83 __ --- 79-82 Do. 

9 H-86 _____ 161-163. 5 Do. 

9 H-89 _____ 19Q-200. 5 Do. 

9 H-92 _____ 239-242. 5 Do. 

12 H-130 ____ 183-191 Do. 

13 H-140 ____ 53. 5-60. 5 Do. 

13 H-15L ___ ' 154. 5-159 Do. 

13 H-157 ____ 218. 5-221 Do. 

Genus URECHINUS A. Agassiz 

Geographic range: Cosmopolitan at suitable depths 

and temperatures, except that it is not found north of . 

the ridge across Davis Strait (lat. 67° N.), the ridge 

between Greenland and Iceland, or the WyvilleThomson Ridge between Iceland and The Faeroes, or 

in the Arctic Ocean. 

Bathymetric range: From 771 to 4,065 meters. 

Thermal range: From about -0.2~ to 3.5° C. 

Geologic range: Late Tertiary and Recent. 

Number of included species: The genu~ Urechinus 

includes 7 species. 

Urechinus naresianus A. Agassiz 

Plate 22, figures 35, 37, 38 

Geographic range: From the ridges across Davis 

Strait (lat. 67° N.), between Greenland and Iceland, 

and between Iceland and The Faeroes southward to 

the Caribbean Sea and, in the east, to Marion Island 

off the coast of southern Africa. In the antarctic and 

subantarctic seas it is replaced by the closely related 

u. wyvillii. 

Bathymetric range: From 771 to 3,135 meters. 

Thermal range: From 1.4° to 4.1° C. 

Material: The distribution of fragments of U. 

naresianus in the cores is shown in table 22. 

TABLE 2?.-Distribution of fragments of Urechinus naresianus in 

the cores 

Core 

No. 

7 

9 

9 

12 

Sample No. 

H-53 _____ H-88 _____ H-89 _____ 

H-133a ___ 

Distance from top of core (centimeters) 

107. 5-112 

168-175. 5 

190-200. 5 

216-217. 5 

Description of fragments 

Spine. 

Do. 

Spines. 

A plate and a tlpine fragment. 

12 H-133b ___ 217. 5-223. 5 Fragments of plates (pl. 22. 

figs. 35, 37, 38). 

13 H-138 ____ 41-42. 5 Spine. 

13 H-139 ____ 42. 5-47 Do. 

13 H-152 ____ 169. 5-173 Spines. 

The plates and plate fragments agree in minute 

detail with corresponding portions of the test of living 

specimens at hand. The rather broad, very finely 

cross-striated borders, the spine bosses, and the numerous 1nuch smaller bosses of the pedicellariae are 

characteristic. 

Genus POURTALESIA A. Agassiz 

Geographic range: Cosmopolitan in water of suitable 

depths and temperatures. 

Bathymetric range: From 219 to 3,610 1neters. 

Thermal range: From -1.0° to +13.7° C. 

· Number of included species: The genus Pourtalesia 

is currently regarded as including 6 species, some of 

which probably are merely local forms of other species. 

Pourtalesia miranda A. Agassiz 

Plate 22, figures 26, 31, 32, 33 

Geographic range: From the ridges across Davis 

Strait (lat. 67° N.), between Greenland and Iceland, 

and between Iceland and The Faeroes southwestward 

to the southern Caribbean Sea. 

Bathymetric range: From 638 to 3,135 meters. 

Thermal range: From 1.4° to 3.3° C. 

Material: The distribution of the fragments of P. 

m1'randa in the cores is shown in table 23. 
114 GEOLOGY AND BIOLOGY OF NORTH ATLANTIC DEEP-SEA CORES 

TABLE 23.-Distribution of .fmgments of Pourtalesia miranda in 

the cores 

Core Sample No. Distance from top I 

No. Description of fragments of core (centimeter~ 

------

3 H-164 ____ 91-95. 5 Spine fragments. 4 H-20 _____ 74. 5--82 Do. 

4 H-2L ____ 104-112 Do. 

4 H-22 _____ 141. 5-145 Do. 

4 H-23 _____ 153-161 Do. 

4 H-24 _____ 179-182. 5 Do. 

4 H-26 ___ - 200-204. 5 Do. 

4 H-30 _____ 258-262 Do. 

4 H-3L ____ 268-271. 5 Do. 

5 H-6 ______ 75. 5-84. 5 Do. 

s H-8 ______ 110. 5-114 Do. 

5 H-9 ______ 124. 5-132. 5 Do. 

5 H-11 _____ 198-205. 5 Do. 

5 H-13 _____ 259. 5-264. 5 Do. 

5 H-14 _____ 274-281. 5 Do. 

6 H-35 ___ - 34. 5-42 Do. 

6 H-3.7 ___ -- 88. 5-90 Do. 

6 H-38 ___ 114-121. 5 Do. 

6 H-40 _____ 152. 5-158-.5 Do. 

6 H-42 _____ 189. 5-195 Do. 

6 H-43 _____ 211. 5-217 Do. 

6 H-44 _____ 235. 5-236 Do. 

6 H-46 _____ 265. 5-270. 5 Do. 

6 H-47_ ____ 282-290 Do. 

7 H-49 _____ 19-23 Do. 

7 H-49a ____ 32. 5-36. 5 Do. 

7 H-fi3 _____ 107. 5-112 Do. 

9 H-79 _____ Q-2 Do. 

9 H-80 _____ 2-9. 5 Do. 

9 H-83 _____ 79-82 Do. 

9 H-85 _____ 136. 5-140. 5 Do. 

9 H--88 _____ 168-175. 5 Do. 

9 H-89 _____ 19Q-200. 5 Do. 

9 H-93 _____ 264-?68 Do. 

10 H-102 ____ 136-139 .• 5 Do. 

10 H-104_ ___ 163-166. 5 Do. 

10 H-106 ____ 190. 5-196. 5 Do. 

12 H-114 ____ 15. 5-20 Do. 

12 H-115 ____ 34-38. 5 Do. 

12 H-117---- 57-60 A primary spine from the 

actina! plastron (pl. 22, 

fig. 26). 

12 H-118 ____ 62-66. 5 Spine fragments. 12 H-128 ____ 149-154 Portion of a primary spine. 12 H-133a ___ 216-217. 5 Portion of a primary abac12 H-133b ___ 217. 5-223. 5 

tinal spine. 

Do. 

12 H-134_ ___ 236-243 Spine fragments. 13 H-139 ____ 42. 5-47 Do. 

13 H-146 ____ 105. 5-112 Do. 

13 H-147 ____ 112~115 Do. 

13 H-152 ____ 169. 5-173 Primary spine from the 

upper border of the buccal 

cavity (pl. 22, figs. 31, 

32, 33). 13 H-153. ___ 173. 5-180 Spine fragments. 

Genus AEROPSIS Mortensen 

Geographic range: Known from the area between· 

Cape Hatteras and Massachusetts, from Davis Strait, 

the Bay of Biscay (?), off Portugal (?), off Peru, off the 

west coast of Central America, central Bering Sea, and 

from a locality near the Aru Islands. It is probably 

cosmopolitan under the proper conditions of bottom, 

depth, and temperature. 

Bathymetric range: From 2,148 to 5,200 meters. 

Thermal range: From 1.4 ° to 3. 6 ° C. 

Geologic range: I{nown only from Recent seas. 

Number of included species: The genus Aeropsis 

includes 2 species, orie from the Pacific Ocean and the 

Arafura Sea and the other from the North Atlantic.· 

These two species are not very well differentiated. 

Aeropsis rostrata (Norman) 

Geographic range: Frmn Cape Hatteras to Davis 

Strait; recorded also from the Bay of Biscay and from 

the sea off Portugal, but. these records require confirmation. 

Bathymetric range: From 2,230 to 3,150 Ineters. 

Thermal range: From 1.4°, to 3.6° C. 

Material: The distribution of the fragments of A. 

rostrata in the cores is given in table 24. 

TABLE 24.-Distribution of fragments of Aeropsis rostrata in the . cores 

Core Sample No. Distance from top Description of fragments No. of core (centimeters) 

4 H-3L ____ 268-271. 5 Spine fragments. 

5 H-6 ____ . _ 75. 5-84. 5 Do. 

6 H-38 ___ - 114-121. 5 Do. 

6 H-40 ___ 152. 5-158. 5 Do. 

6 H-42 _____ 189. 5-195 Do. 

6 H-47 _____ 282-290 Do. 

7 H-50 _____ 49. 5-.54 Do. 

7 H-5L ____ 70. 5-74. 5 Do. 

7 H-58 _____ 203-209 Do. 

9 H-79 _____ .0-2 Do. 

9 H-80 _____ 2-9. 5 Do. 

9 H-8L ____ 37. 5-42 Do. 

9 H-86 _____ 161-163. 5 Do. 

9 H-88 _____ 168--175. 5 Do. 

9 H-89 _____ 190-200. 5 Do. 

11 H-177 ____ 5. 5-12 Do. 

12 H-113 _____ 0-5 Do. 

12 H-115 _____ 34-38. 5 Do. 

12 H-116 ____ 52-57 Do. 

12 H-128 ____ 149-154 Do 

12 H-133a ___ 216-217. 5 Do. 

12 H-133b ___ 217. 5-223. 5 Do. 

13 H-137 ____ 23. 5-27 Do. 

Genus ACESTE Wyville Thomson 

Geographic range: Off southern New England and 

Virginia, off the Azores, the eastern Atlantic, the Canary 

Islands, the Caribbean Sea, off Uruguay, off the coast 

of Peru, northwest of the Marquesas, the Hawaiian 

Islands, southern Japan, the Lesser Sunda Islands, and 

the Bay of Bengal. It is probably cosmopolitan on 

suitable bottoms under the requisite physical conditions. 

Bathymetric range: From 435 to 5,200 n1eters. 

Thermal range: From 0.0° to 8.9° C. 

Geologic range: Known only from Recent seas. 

Number of included species: The genus Aceste is 

currently considered as.'including 3 species, A. bellidijera 

from the Atlantic, A. ovata from the Pacific, and A. 

weberi from the Bay of Bengal and the Lesser Sunda 

Islands. But the differences between these are slight 

and unimportant, and they probably represent merely 

more or less constant local varieties of a single cosmo-

. politan species. 

PART 6. ECHINODERMATA 115 

Aceste bellidifera Wyville Thomson 

Pl · 22, figure 27 

Geographic range: nown from off southern New 

England and Virginia, Jff the Azores, near the Canary 

Islands, the eastern L~lantic, the Caribbean Sea, and 

off Uruguay. 

Bathymetric range: From 698 to 3,473 meters. 

Thermal range: From 0.0° to 7.6° C. 

Material: The distribution of the fragments of A. 

bellidijera in the cores is shown in table 25. 

TABLE 25.-Distribution of fragments of Aceste bellidifera in the cores 

Core Sample No. Distance from top Description of fragments No. of core (centimeters) 

6 H-35 _____ 34. 5-42 Spine (pl. 22, fig. 27). 

7 H-49 _____ 19-23 Spine fragments. 

7 H-49a ____ 32. 5-36. 5 Do. 

7 H-54a ____ 133. 5-139 Do. 

7 H-59 _____ 232-240 Do. 

8 H-61_ ____ 0-1. 5 Do. 

8 H-67 _____ 31-35. 5 :Oo. 

8 H-71 _____ 60-64 Do. 

12 H-133a ___ 216-217. 5 Do. 

12 H-134 ____ 236-243 Do. 

13 H-144 ____ 89-94. 5 Do. 

13 H-145 ____ 94-5. 100. 5 Do. 

Genus HEMIASTER L. Agassiz and Desor 

Geographic range: From the ridges across Davis 

Strait (lat. 67° N.), between Greenland and Iceland, 

between Iceland and The Faeroes, and from The Faeroes 

to Norway southward to the Caribbean Sea and the 

Canary Islands; Indian Ocean; from the Malay Archipelago northward to southern Japan; and from the west 

coast of Central America southward to Ecuador. 

Bathymetric range: From 139 to 4,062 meters. 

Thermal range: From 1.6° to 11.8° C. 

Geologic range: Cretaceous to Recent. 

Number of included species: The genus Hemiaster 

includes 5 Recent species. 

Hemiaster expergitus Loven 

Plate 22, figure 30 

Geographic_ range: From the ridges across Davis 

Strait (lat. 67° N.), between Greenland and Iceland, 

between Iceland and The Faeroes, and from TheFaeroes 

to Norway southward to the Caribbean Sea and the 

Canary Islands; the Malay Archipelago and northward 

to southern Japan. 

Bathymetric range: From 402 to 3,107 meters. 

Thermal range: From 2.4° to 7.7° C. 

Material: The distribution of the fragments of H. 

. expergitus in the cores is shown in t~ble 26. 

TABLE 26.-Distribution of fragments of Hemiaster expergitus 

in the cores 

Core 

No. 

6 

9 

9 

9 

9 

9 

12 

13 

13 

13 

13 

13 

13 

Sample No. 

H-46 __ - --

H-80 ____ _ H-87 ____ _ H-88 ____ _ H-89 ____ _ H-92 ____ _ H-12L __ _ H-135 ___ _ 

H-144 ___ _ H-149 ___ _ H-150 ___ _ H-151_ __ _ 

H-152 ___ _ 

Distance from top · of core (centimeters) 

265. 5-270. 5 

2-9. 5 

163. 5-168 

168-175.5 

190-200. 5 

239-242. 5 

89. 5-90. 5 

0-5. 5 

89-94. 5 

135. 5-141. 5 

145. 5-150 

154. 5-159 

169. 5-173 

Description of fragments 

A typical spatulate spine of 

intermediate width. 

An anterior primary spine. 

Do. 

Spine. 

An anterior primary spine. 

Spine. 

Fragments of spines. 

Do. 

Tip of a spatulate spine. 

A spatulate spine. 

Spine fragments. 

A spatulate spine. 

One nearly complete spatulate spine, the tip of an- other, the base of a third, 

and a fragment (pl. 22, 

fig. 30). 

Genus RHIZOCRINUS M. Sars 

Geographic range: From Florida northward to Nova 

Scotia and Davis Strait (as far as lat. 65°16' N.), eastward and northeastward to western and southern Iceland, western Ireland, western Scotland, and the Lofo~ 

ten Islands. 

Bathymetric range: From 140 to 3,135 meters. 

Thermal range: From 1.4° to 9.3° C. 

Geologic range: Eocene to Recent. 

Number of included species: The genus Rhizocrinus 

includes only the single Recent species R. lofotensis. 

The form occurring along the North American coast 

from Florida to Nova Scotia is regarded as a subspecies, 

R. lojotensis verrilli. 

Rhizocrinus lofotensis M. Sars 

Geographic range: From Florida northward to Nova 

Scotia, Davis Strait (lat. 65°16' N .) , western and 

southern Iceland, ,western Ireland, western Scotland, 

and the Lofoten Islands. 

Bathymetric range: From 140 to 3,135 meters. 

Thermal range: From 1.4° to 9.3° C. 

Material: Core 8, H-61a, 6-8.5 centimeters below 

top of core.-Two pinnulars. 

OCCURRENCE OF SPECIES BY CORES 

The distribution of echinoderm species in each core 

is shown graphically in plate 20. 

RELATIVE FREQUENCY OF THE SPECIES 

By far the commonest species represented in the 

cores is Pourtalesia miranda, remains of which were 

found in 50 samples, from all the cores except core 8 

and core 11. The next commonest species was Echinus 
116 GEOLOGY AND BIOLOGY OF NORTH ATLANTIC DEEP~EA CORES 

aifinis, the stout spines or plates of which were.found 

in 32 samples, but these samples were from only 4 cores. 

Other species frequently. encountered were Aeropsis 

rostrata, in 24 samples representing all but 3 cores, and 

Plexechinus hirsutus, in 20 samples from 6 cores. Aceste 

bellidijera was found in 13 samples from 5 cores, and 

Hemiaster expergitus in 13 samples from . 4 cores. 

Urechinus naresianus was found in 8 samples from 4 

cores, and Ophiocten sericeum in 8 samples from 3 cores. 

Rhizocrinus lojotensis was found in only a single sample 

from the upper part of core 8. 

DISTRIBUTION OF SPECIES BY CORES 

The distribution of the echinoderm species represented in the cores is shown in table 27. 

'TABLE 27.-Distribution of the echinoderm species represented in 

the cores 

Cores 

Species 

4 5 7 8 10 11 12 13 

!5i~~)f~~~··:---_::, •••• -_ -:~: :~:} l- : ••• ~ ~ Pourtalesia miranda _____________ X X X X X ____ X X ____ X X 

Aeropsis rostrata _________________ ____ X X X X ____ X ____ X X X 

Aceste bellidi[era _________________ ____________ X X X ____________ X X 

Hemiaster expergitus_____________ ____ ____ ____ X ____ ____ X ________ X X 

Rhizocrinus lofotensis ___________ ____________________ X ___________ _ 

Total number_____________ 1 6 8 8 

Cores 12 and 13 contained the largest number of 

echinoderm species, 8 each. Core 8 contained remains 

in the greatest abundance, but these represented only 

5 species. Table 28 presents a fairly accurate picture 

of the relative abundance, although echinoderm fragments were probably more uniformly distributed 

through the cores than is indicated by the samples 

examined. 

TABLE 28.-Number of samples containing echinoderm remains 

and numbers of species represented 

Number of Number of 

Core Depth (meters) samples contain- species repre- ing echinoderm 

remains sen ted 

-----·------------------

3 4, 700 2 1 

4 3,955 8 2 

5 4,820 (j 2 

6 4, 125 9 5 

7 3,250 10 5 

8 1, 280 18 5 

9 3. 745 11 6 

10 4; 190 3 1 

11 4,820 1 1 

12 3,230 13 8 

13 1,955 15 8 

BATHYMETRIC ANOMALIES 

A number of the cores came from water deeper than 

the maximum at which some or all of the included 

species are known to live. The species for which the 

depth range is extended are listed below. Following 

each species is given the difference between the greatest 

depth at which it has been found previously and the 

depth at which the core was taken, also the differenqe 

between the maximum depth at which the genus has 

been found and the depth at which the core was taken. 

CoRE 4: 

Pourtalesia miranda __ _________________ _ 

CoRE 6: 

Aceste bellidifera ______________ -- _- __ -- _ 

H emiaster expergitus ___________________ _ 

Plexechinus hirsutus ___________________ _ 

Pourtalesia miranda ________ ___________ _ 

CoRE 9:_ 

Aeropsis rostrata ______________________ _ 

Urechinus naresianus __________________ _ 

Pou.rtalesia miranda ____ _______________ _ 

CoRE 10: 

Difference, in meters, 

between depth of core and greatest known depth ofSpecies 

825 

657 

68 

1, 754 

990 

600 

615 

610 

Genus 

350 

. 0 

68 

1, 754 

515 

0 

Q 

135 

Pourtalesia miranda ____________________ 1, 060 585 

CoRE 12: 

Pourtalesia miranda____________________ 100 0 

Aeropsis rostrata_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 85 0 

Urechinus naresianus___________________ 100 0 

Echinus aflinis_________________________ 51 51 

Core 13 was taken at a depth 275 meters shallower 

than the minimum depth at which one of the contained 

species, Aeropsis rostrata, had previously been found 

and 193 meters less than the previously known minimum 

depth of the genus Aeropsis. 

The apparent discrepancies are probably due to 

incomplete knowledge of the bathymetric range of the 

species noted. Comparatively few dredge hauls have 

been taken in the northeastern Atlantic at depths 

greater than 3,000 meters, far too few to give us an 

adequate picture of the true conditions at those depths. 

The greatest depth at which a core containing the remains of echinodern1s was recovered was 4,820 meters 

(cores 5 and 11). Farther south the Princesse-Alice 3 

dredged no less than 7 species of echinoderms (exclusive 

of holothurians) in 4,275 meters at station 1,306, and 

3 species in 6,035 meters at station 1,173. 

ASSOCIATION OF THE SPECIES ON THE PRESENT 

OCEAN BOTTOM 

The most extensive work in the region under consideration was done by the Danish Ingolf expedition in 

1895-96, and it is interesting to note the association of 

the species represented in the cores at the various 

Ingolf stations. 

Ingolf station 18; southwest of Iceland (lat. 61 °44' N.; long. 

30°29' W.); 2,075 meters; temperature 3.0° C. 

Urechinus naresianus. 

Pourtalesia miranda. 

Rhizocrinus lofotensis. 

a Koehler, R., Echinodermes provenant des campagnes du yacht Princesse-Alice 

(Asteries, Ophiures, Echinides et Crinoldes): Resultats des campagnes scientifiques 

accomplies sur son yacht par Albert I, Prince Souverain de Monaco, fasc. 34, pp, 292, 

293, Monaco, 1909. 
PART 6. ECHINODERMATA 117 

Ingolf station 24; Davis Strait (lat. 63°06' N., long. 56° W.); 

2,192 meters; temperature 2.4° C. 

Pourtalesia miranda. 

Hemiaster expergitus. 

Ingolf station 36; Davis Strait (lat. 61 °50' N., long. 56°21' W.); 

2,623 meters; temperature 1.5° C. 

Urechinus naresianus. 

Pourtalesia miranda. 

Aeropsis rostrata. 

Ingolf station 37; Davis Strait (lat. 60°17' N., long. 54°05' W.); 

3,135 meters; temperature 1.4" C. 

Urechinus naresianus. 

Pourtalesia miranda. 

Aeropsis rostrata. 

Rhizocrinus lofotensis. 

Ingolf station 39; south of Iceland (lat. 62°00' N., long. 

22°38' W.); 1,581 meters; temperature 2.9° C. 

Urechinus naresianus. 

Pourtalesia miranda. 

Hemiaster expergitus. 

Ingolf station 40; south of Iceland (lat. 62°00' N., long. 

21 °36' W_.); 1,54~ meters; temperature 3.3° C. 

Ophiocten sericeum. 

Urechinus naresianus. 

Pourtalesia miranda. 

H emiaster expergitus. 

Ingolf station 67; south of Iceland (lat. 61 °30' N., long. 

22°30' W.); 1, 782 meters; temperature 3.0° C. 

Pourtalesia miranda. 

Hemiaster expergitus. 

Ingolf station 76; southwest of Iceland (lat. 60°50' N., long. 

26°50' W.); 1,473 meters; temperature 4.1° C. 

Plexechinus hirsutus. 

Urechinus naresianus. 

Ingolf station 81; southwest of Iceland (lat. 61°44' N., long. 

27°00' W.); 887 meters; temperature ·6.1 ° C. 

Ophiocten sericeum. 

Plexechinus hirsutus. 

Rhizocrinis lofotensis. 

Ingolf station 83; southwest of Iceland (lat. 62°25' N., long. 

28°30' W.); 1,667 meters; temperature 3.5° C. 

Plexechinus hirsutus. 

Urechinus naresianus. 

Rhizocrinus lofotensis. 

The general similarity between the association of 

species as represented in the cores and the association 

on the sea bottom as represented in the lngolf dredgings 

is rather striking. 

At lngolf stations 36 and 38 there were dredged three 

of the four species represented in core 12, sample 

H-133b, taken 217.5-223.5 centimeters below the 

surface, and at stations 39 and 40 there were found 

three of the four species represented in core 13, sample 

H-152, taken 169.5-173 centimeters below the surface. 

The tendency of Echinus ajjinis to appear alone in 

sections of the cores, as in cores 8 and 12, is parallel to 

the incidence of this species in the Ingolf dredgings. 

The Ingolf obtained it at eight stations, but at none of 

these were any of the other species represented in 

the cores. 

Aceste bellidifera, remains of which were rather common in the cores, was not dredged by the Ingolf. 

RELATION OF SPECIES TO DISTANCE BELOW TOP 

OF CORE 

The relation of the remains of the various echinodenh 

species represented to the distance below the tops of 

the cores at which they occur is shown in table 29. 

TABLE 29.-Relation of echinoderm species to distance below top 

of core 

Distance below top of core (centimeters) 

Species 

0-30 3Q-75 75-139 139-195 195-240 24D-290 

-----'----------------------------

Ophiocten sericeum______________ X X X X X 

Echintts af]inis__________________ X X X X X 

Plexechinus hirsutus __ ---------- X X X X X X Urechinus naresianus___________ ________ X X X X 

Pourtalesia miranda_____________ X X X X X X 

Aeropsis rostrata________________ X X X X X X 

Aceste bellidi[era________________ X X X X X 

Hemiaster expergitus____________ X X X X, X 

Rhizocrinuslofotensis_ _ _________ X -------- -------- -------- -------- --------

Total number ____________ -8--7--8-~-7-~-8-~-5-

The absence of Ophiocten sericeum between 139 and 

195 centimeters; Echinus ajjinis, Urechinus naresianus, 

and Aceste bellidifera below 240 centimeters; Urechinus 

naresianus above 30 centimeters; Hemiaster expergitus 

between 30 and 7 5 centimeters; and Rhizocrinus 

lojotensis below 30 centimeters is probably without 

significance. On the basis of the available evidence it 

is reasonable to infer that from the time represented 

by the lowest parts of the cores until the present day all 

the species represented in the cores have maintained 

essentially the same relationships on the sea bottom. 

It should be noted that in core 4 no echinoderm 

remains were found higher than 74.5 centi1neters below 

the top, in core 5 above 75.5 centimeters, in core 6 

above 34.5 centimeters, and in core 10 above 136 centimeters. Whether or not this is of significance cannot 

be determined at present. 

II 

PART 7. MISCELLANEOUS FOSSILS AND SIGNIFICANCE OF 

FAUNAL DISTRIBUTION 

By LLOYD G. HE:riBEST 

INTRODUCTION 

The fossils discussed in this chapter were found in the 

11 cores of deep-sea sediment that were collected by 

C. S. Piggot in 1936 between Newfoundland and the 

British Isles. Details of location, depth of water, and 

length of core, beyond the data appearing on plate 21, 

are presented in the introductory chapter. 

The original purpose of this chapter was to furnish 

a record of the occurrences of organisms that were not 

studied by the specialists of particular groups. It became evident before I had completed picking out the 

metazoan fossils from each sample that the distribution 

of the faunas had a significance that was incompletely 

represented by any single group except perhaps the 

Foraminifera. I have attempted to organize the data 

on the larger aspects of faunal distribution independentlY and without infringing on the field of the reports 

on special groups. The chapter on the Ostracoda, by 

W. L. Tressler, _was finished before this chapter was 

completed, and his work is the source of certain data 

on the ostracodes. The data on temperature were obtained from the chapter on Foraminifera. 

It is a pleasure to acknowledge my indebtedness to 

W. H. Bradley, of the Geological Survey, and Waldo 

L. Schmitt, of the United States National Museum, for 

helpful criticisms of the manuscript. 

The following groups of organisms, listed in order of 

importance as rock-forming agents, were found in these 

cores: Foraminifera, Diatomaceae, Echinoidea (spines 

and, rarely, dissociated plates), Silicispongiae, Radiolaria, and Ostracoda. Locally, Pteropoda are in the 

first rank of lime-precipitating agents. Scattered fossils or recognizable fragments of Brachiopoda, Pelecypoda, Gastropoda, Bryozoa, Echinodermata other 

than Echinoidea, barnacle plates, and otoliths of teleost 

fishes were recovered but are rare and are very minor 

elements in the fauna and sediment. 

All the metazoan fossils discussed in this and closely 

related chapters (pts. 4, 5, and 6) were recovered from 

the H series of samples, .which were originally taken 

and prepared for studying the Foraminifera. These 

samples are numbered H-1 to H-177, except s·everal 

additional samples that were taken during the progress 

of the work. These additional samples were designated 

by supplementary lower-case letters, as, for example, 

H-133a and H-133b. Three samples were also obtained from the B series, making a total of 184 samples 

that were studied .. The locations of all the H samples 

are shown on plate 21 and of the B samples on 

plate 3. 

METHODS OF PREPARATION AND STUDY 

The samples were not removed until after the cores 

had thoroughly dried. At most horizons the sediment 

had hardened sufficiently on drying to withstand the 

cutting out of coherent sectors of the core with a hacksaw. The sectors were trimmed of extraneous material 

to avoid contamination, or, wherever the sediment was 

too friable to handle, extraneous material was scraped 

away before excavating a sample. The average 

trimmed sample had a volume of 2 to 5 cubic centimeters. 

The samples were very carefully washed in 200-mesh 

bolting silk, precautions being taken to avoid contamination and breakage of specimens. Though most 

samples required only a prolonged soaking in water 

before washing, some required boiling or treatment 

with washing soda. As a result of this method of 

preparation, ~inute diatoms and radiolarians, clay, 

and fine silt were washed through the sieve. Though 

effective for shells of Foraminifera and larger organisms, 

this method frequently does not separate small diatoms 

and radiolarians from a clay matrix. Consequently 

the estimates of relative abundance of organisms (see 

pl. 21) based on the washed residues are more or less 

inaccurate for the small diatoms and radiolaria:p.s but 

not for a few large forms, such as the diatom Coscinodiscus, which is clearly recognizable in such washed 

residues. The diatoms, however, are only treated incidentally in this chapter in connection with certain 

distributional problems, as they have been treated 

comprehensively in the chapter by K. E. Lohman, who 

worked with a different series of samples. 

It should be noted that the few samples that were 

boiled in a solution of washing soda did not originally 

contain enough silica fossils to characterize the sediment. Therefore, it is unlikely that the possible destructive effect of the washing soda on the silica fossils 

119 
120 GEOLOGY AND BIOLOGY OF NORTH ATLANTIC DEEP-SEA CORES 

made a serious difference in the gross estimates of 

organic silica. 

Several of the groups of metazoan fossils were ·submitted to 8pecialists, who supplied either memoranda 

that have been incorporated with due acknowledgments in this chapter or r9ports that appear as separate 

chapters or parts. (See p. XIV of the introductory 

chapter). Representatives of the metazoan fossils are 

illustrated on plates 22 and 23. 

In order to show clearly the geographic and stratigraphic distribution of the groups of fossils in these 

cores, the washed residue of each sample was searched 

under a low-power stereoscopic microscope, and the 

occurrence and the relative abundance of the organisms 

were plotted on a large chart (pl. 21). After recovering 

the metazoan fossils and incidentally any rare or significant specimens of Foraminifera that came to view, 

the sample was divided, and about three-fifths was sent 

to the Cushman Laboratory, where the Foraminifera 

were systematically picked out and organized for study 

by Frances L. Parker. 

Obviously such a method of determining the proportions of the various groups is applicable only to the 

microorganisms, because they alone are found in suffi.cient numbers in these small samples to be representative of their groups. The inclusion of a whole specimen 

of a large metazoan fossil in a small trimmed sample is 

more or less accidental. In our sampling, however, we 

searched the exposed surfaces of each core for large 

fossils, thus making our record more comprehensive 

·than that afforded by the trimmed samples alone. 

For these .reasons, the large fossils are generally indicated Qn the chart as present or absent. Locally, 

fossil pteropods and ostracodes were found in sufficient 

abundance to be given a numerical rating. 

Rough estimates were also made of the ratio of 

organic (i. e., shell) silica and calcium carbonate to the 

inorganic sediment in the washed residue of each sample. 

Wherever the organic calcium carbonate content was 

large enough to chf}.racterize the sediment it was indicated on the chart (pl. 21) by a solid black rectangle. 

The presence of only subordinate amounts of organic 

calcium carbonate was indicated by a broad, vertical 

line, a;nd the absence by a blank space. In an adjacent 

column the relative amount of organic silica was 

similarly indicated, It should be emphasized that these 

estimates reflect the relative abundance of organically 

produced {!alcium carbonate and silica in samples of the 

sediment from which,has been washed all the material 

fine enough to pass through 200-mesh silk bolting 

cloth. Because considerable quantities of organically 

produced calcium carbonate and silica, such as coccoliths and minute diatoms and comminuted fragments 

of foraminiferal shells, pass through the sieve, the 

relative amounts of these constituents that were in 

these samples before washing may be considerably 

different from those shown on plate 21. In some, the 

relations are almost certainly reversed. For estimates 

of the percentage of foraminiferal· shells and estimates 

of the relative abundance of coccoliths in unwashed 

samples of sediment in the cores see plate 3 of the chapter entitled "Lithology and geologic interpretations." 

NOTES ON THE GROUPS OF FOSSILS 

BARNACLES 

Plate 23, figures 2Q-38 

A few dissociated plates of barnacles were found in 

samples H-61a, H-70 to H-75, H-77, H-78, H-133a, 

H-133b, and H-134. In all but one of these samples 

the plates were associated with an abundance of 

globigerinids. In that one exception (H-75) the number of globigerinids was estimated as common rather 

than abundant. In samples H-77, H-78, H-133a, 

H-133b, and H-134 pteropods are associated with the 

barnacles, and in H-133a, H-133b, and H-134 the 

pteropods are abundant. All our specimens of barnacles were taken from cores 8, 12, and 13, the three 

from the shallowest depths. The depths from which 

these cores were taken range from 1,280 to 3,230 meters 

(700 to 1,770 fathoms). Because barnacles attach 

themselves to all sorts or-objects, whether fixed, floating, 

or swimming,. the plates of shallow-water barnacles are 

widely distributed over the ocean bottoms. 

BRACHIOPODA 

Plate 22, figures 15-18 

Six samples in core 8 contained fragments or parts 

of shells large enough to be definitely recognizable as 

brachiopods. In core 13 one recognizable frag1nent 

was found. In core !2 an identifiable valve was found. 

The three most nearly complete specimens were submitted to G. A. Cooper, of the United States National 

Museum, for identification. He reported as follows: 

These specimens belong to two widely different genera of 

brachipods. The genus Gryphus was represented in core 8, 

sample H-61a, by a poorly preserved dorsal and ventral valve. 

The genus Cryptopora was represented in core 12, sample 

H-133b, by a single dorsal valve sufficiently well preserved to 

be identified as the species C. gnomon (Jeffreys). This brachiopod has a range in existing seas of 100 to nearly 1,800 fathoms. 

The present depth of water at core station 12 is 

3,230 meters (1,770 fathoms). 

BRYOZOA 

Plate 22, figures 20-24 

Specimens recognizable as undoubtedly Bryozoa 

were found in three samples, H-66 and H-69 in core 8, 

and H-132 in core 12 (pl. 22, figs. 23, 24). These were 

submitted to R. S. Bassler, of the United States National Museum, who reports that "they belong to 

three species of Entalophora, a genus of Cyclostomata. 

They were most likely transported to this locality on 

floating or swimming supports." 
PART 7. MISCELLANEOUS FOSSILS AND SIGNIFICANCE OF FAUNAL DISTRIBUTION 121 

These, along with specimens of the foraminifer 

Elphidium (see p. 47) and a few other erratics, both 

inorganic and organic, give incre~sing evidenee of the 

importance of rafts (probably seaweed) and perhaps 

ice as transporting agents of attached or frozen microorganisms and small invertebrates. 

4 few fragmentary specimens of problematical, 

bryozoanlike growths were found in samples H-61, 

II-61a, and H-63, core 8 (pl. 22, figs. 2Q-22). Specimens of these were sent to R. C. Osburn, of Ohio State 

University, and to Elizabeth Deichmann, of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard College, and 

both have reported that they are bryozoan. Osburn, 

besides reporting that they are definitely Bryozoa, 

adds the following information: 

One of these four [specimensJ shows a perfectly good aperture 

with an avicularian process and chamber, and another specimen 

shows the same structures less perfectly. I cannot be certain 

of the genus, but J aculina of J'ullien comes pretty close. It 

occu!s down to 500 meters. This species is not J. blanchardi 

(the only one known in the genus) and is probably new. 

There is another species on slide 61 [sample H-61, not illustrated], the left-hand specimen. It is imperfect and a small 

scrap but looks as if it might belong to the Reteporidae. 

DIATOMACEAE 

The diatoms recorded on the chart represent only 

species of Coscinodiscus, the tests of which are large 

enough to be retained by the sieves used in washing 

foraminiferal samples. Diatoms of this genus are sufficiently abundant at places in some cores to be a conspicuous or even a dominant constituent of the sediment. In such proportions the importance of the 

diatoms as mineral-precipitating agents is evident, and 

their abundance can readily be estimated, even in 

samples prepared for Foraminifera. A comprehensive 

treatment of the diatmns is given in part 3 of this professional paper, by K. E. Lohman, who worked with 

a separate series of samples. 

ECHINODERMATA 

Plate 22, figures 25-40 

Echinoderm remains .other than echinoids are very 

rare and fragmentary, but the echinoid remains are 

widely distributed through the cores. They are not 

sufficiently plentiful in any sample to characterize the 

sediment but are so widely distributed, even in zones 

where other .groups of organisms are scarce or absent, 

that they are important limy elements of the sediment. 

However, echinoids may not contribute as much calcite 

to the bottom sediment as they destroy or dissolve as a 

result of ingesting large quantities of bottom sediment 

that contains an abundance of calcareous shells. 

The echinoids are represented chiefly by spines, but 

in core 12, sample H-133b, a few dissociated interambulacral plates and fragements were found. A number 

of the samples contained a few ophiuroid spines and 

marginal or peripheral plates and vertebrals. In number and distribution these are greatly exceeded by the 

echinoid remains. 

The echinoderm fossils were submitted to Austin H. 

Clark, of the United States National Museum, for 

study. His report is part 6 (pp. 111-117) of this professional paper and was prepared after this chapter 

was written. It contains an interesting observation 

that deserves additional comment here in connection 

with my discussion of hypotheses of extreme changes in 

sea level. Clark observes ,that several species in the 

cores are found at somewhat greater depths than previously recorded. I have attempted to correlate the 

occurrences at depths greater than previously known 

with the time and climatic zones recognized in the 

cores, but without success. Furthermore, the anomalies do not appear to be systematic within themselves. 

In view of (1) the widely observed generalization that 

within the zone of calcite stability in sea water, deep-sea 

organisms are not closely restricted by small variations 

in depth; and (2) the apparent lack of a systematic 

arrangement of the occurrences, these downward extensions of range seem ·to have no observable significance. The possibility that such forms as Hemiaster 

may have burrowed into sedimentary layers below 

those representing their life zone and died there makes 

it unsafe to conclude that the habitats of all the echinoids were as lacking in fine zoning as they appear to be 

from the sedimentary record of these cores. 

FORAMINIFERA 

The Foraminifera are the subject of a separate 

chapter (pt. 2, pp. 35-50), but the preeminent importance of the group as a member of the faunas and as a 

source of significant information on distribution and 

ecology makes it appropriate to include in this chapter 

a brief survey of its faunal distribution. The temperature data on the chart in plate 21 were originally contributed in the chapter on "Foraminifera," fig~res 11 

to 21. The estimates of relative abundance, however, 

were prepared for the present chapter. 

Pelagic foraminifers are' present in most samples. 

Only 5 samples out of 184 were barren of pelagic species, 

and only 4 were nearly so. Shells of bottom-dwelling 

forms are less widely distributed. About 32 samples 

contained no bottom-dwelling forms, and 11 contained 

only a ver-y few. A wider distribution for pelagic 

forms is to be expected, because they are generally 

independent of bottom conditions that may make a 

locality unfavorable as a dwelling place for bottomliving foraminifers though favorable for preservation 

of the shells rained down from the zone of light penetration. In 100 samples-Jour-sevenths of the total 

number taken from the cores-the pelagic foraminifers 

constitute a considerable or even a prindpal.part of 

the washed residues. 
GICOLOGICAL BURVIlY 

Lat. 46' 03'00 · N. 

Long. 43'23'00" W 

Depth 4,700 meters 

3 

r h i { ~~ t ~ l ~ 

'· ~ 

~j i~~ ll "~ . 

's 158 

23 I 130 

135 I 

1:~ 161 3 52 

;i 162 

1 g, 

1·64- I I gs 

1108 

1165 

II" 

1123 l* I 

1131 

151 167 

1168 

1160 

noll•• I> 

~· · 171 IK - 172 )( 

~~. 175 

(Faces p. 122) 

lx 

II! 1! 

j 

Lat. 48'29 00" N. 

Long 35'54'30" W. 

Depth 3.955 meters 

4 

I 6~-··s~~~4-~~4~4-~~+4~~ 

16 

I ~~~.~-++~~1--1--1-+-+-+-+--l 

1>7 17 

34 18 ~ 39~~HH4+~~++~ 

1-41 22 

lo4S~~~~~~~++++-4 

153~~~~~++++++++-4 

11&1 23 1

166 123• 

1• 1171~~++++++++++++~~ 

26 

1271131 

Lat. 48'38'00" N 

Long. 36' 01'00' W 

Depth 4.820 meters 

5 

13~-1-

~~ 3 II s 

o42~4Th+~~~~~~4-~4-~ 

46 ~4~~~~3~~3~4~~~~·+4~~ 

60~~~+4~~~~+4~~~ 416 65~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 5 

75 ~--~~~~~~~~~~-4 

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95~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

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11 0 8 

114 

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132 ~~~~4-f-+~H~+-11-+4-1--1 

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2~1-13~~~~~~-~-4~~ .. ~-.~~~-+-4 

264~~~~+44-~++~~+--1 

274f----Win-++ IH-H++++++-1~ 

12at 14 II 1 554 X X 

2. 

Lat. 49'03'30" N. 

Long. 32'44'30" W 

Depth 4,125 meters 

6 

33 2 54 4 

Lat. 49' 32'00" N. 

Long. 29'2l'OO" W 

Depth 3,250 meters 

7 

Lat. 49" 36'00" N 

Long. 28' 54'00" W 

Depth I ,280 meters 

8 

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0 

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Lat. 49'40'00" N. 

Long. 28"29'00" W 

Depth 3,745 meters 

9 

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19 

23 r t4~9=~$~:~j=~3t2g~3tx~~·t•rtj~3tj=t=j 

49~+rt-~-~~~+4~~4-~--1 

54~~o~f-+-Ff3~4H~+4-+4-"f-+4--4 

5~~~++~~~~+4~~~ 

52 ~·-9~~~4-~~~+4-tz4-3~x+-1~+1-?r:~·~· 

37 

81 354 sxx ~2 

59 

61 

66 1-3-6~·~~·~2+6+4~3~++~~~ 67 

82 ~ 244 ... X 

124 f--1Tf-++~+f-++f-++1f-++---l 12s !-''-''t'H++4-t-i 4- 4-H+--l 

33~~~~+4~4-~~+4++4~4 

Il l 76 114 

:~~ 77 

13 13 

24 

I 3 

X X X 3 B 

3 3 x a xiBJl 

XX 3 X 

XX X X 

79 6 2 

99 

107 136 140 

83 

135 4 X X X 

8 4 

144 ... 3 

85 I 3 5 2 X X X? L 

152 ~~M-++1f-+~~++-l-+~~-l 

40 I 4 -4 5 3 

161 I 163 87 • 3 5 1

4 3)( 

168 

88 35 I 3 3 

175 

771--f.~~~~++-l-++-~~~~ 

~Hi-+~f-+~H~+-1~~}--1 18 3r-4.ht4-~4- 4-f-+4-f-+4--4 

XX3 

190 

14 4 3 

199 ~-fi~~+-H+~-++1~~~-l 

~2 89 3 3 2 3 3 3 

!2-oo 

211 ~-+.+ri-++1f-+~~+~-+~~-~ 

214 3 .. 5 

2 17 ~~~-++1f-+~~+~-+~~-~ go 3 

14 

219 221 

239 92 

3 533 X 

~2 

59 

1 4 XXX X3 

26-4 93 2 3 4 X X 268 

941111•3 52 277 

43 

~7~~++++~Hh44++~ l:!oz 60 34 

47 1 -444XX XX 

CHART SHOWING TllE DISTRIBUTION AND RELATIVE ABUNDANCE OF THE MISCELLANEOUS ORGANISMS 

IN TllE CORES. 

Eaclt ooce ia repreaented by a wide9 vertical column that baa the core elation number present-day eurface.watel' tempera lure at each COI'e alation. The relative abuadance 

at iu top. Each umple of the eerie& H- 1 to H- 177 ia indicated by a pair of boriaontal of the occani•m• ia ahown by the numbers 1 to 6: I indica tea that the or1aniama are 

lines between which the sample number and other eymbola are placed. The poeition abundant or a dominant constituent, rou1hly 25 to nearly 100 percent; 2 indicate~~ 

and len1th of each eample i1 indicated both by the relative poeition in the column and that the Ol'l&niema are plentiful and a coaepicuoue element of the sample; 3, common; 

by the number' of centimeters below the top of each core. The ratio of Ol'lanic lime 4, a minor conetituent, roushly 1 percent or leu by volume ; 5, uncommon; and 6, rare. 

aod ailica to inorcanic material in the waebed reeidue of a eample it rou1hly indicated The pre:Aenoe of lar1er Ol'l&nieme or oth«e whose abundance it DOL adequately repre .. 

by a 101id black rectansle if the lime or eilica eon•titutee more than approximately 15 .ented by 11111all eamplea ie indicated by X. Orsaniema too 8CIIr<:e for a aeparatc col· 

~cent of the volume or by a wide vertical line if the lime or eilica ia present in amaller umn are lieted under "Miecellaneoue" and indicated at follow a: B. Brachiopoda; 

amounta. Relative differences in aurface.water tempera

t ure aa abown by the pelasic G. Ga.,tropoda; H, Holothuroidea; L, Pelocypoda; O. otolhh of teleoet &ab; P, 

foraminifers are indicated by lar1e doll on or near a relereoce line that rept:esenta the Bryoaoa. 

\" 

Lat. 49' 45'00" N. 

Long. 23'30'30" W 

Depth 4,190 meters 

10 

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Lat. 48'38'00" N. 

Long. 17'09'00" W. 

Depth 4.820 meters 

II 

c~~{e~~ basalt lumps 

113 

Lat 49'37'00" N 

Long 13' 34'00 ' W 

Depth 3.230 meters 

12 

I 4 X X 

5~-1.~4-1-+4-1-+4-~4-1-+-1-~ 

20~~ .. ~~~~ +4-+~"f-+~x+4-+~ 

~4.~+4~ 4-~4-1~+4~ 

38 ~~~~ +4-+~xH~+4-+~ 

~~lzi' 24 X X 

05 zz~~~~z~z~K4-~~·~f-+-1 

113 i-.+.H-+-+4~4-f-+~H-++1--l 

111 ~-!c ~H+ +~H 4-K4-H-+--1 

•5 1---1..1-11-+4-f-+~H-+4-H~+--1 U!O 129 I ~ X 

el i---1..1-11-+4-H~+-1-+4-H~+--1 : 134 1 ~ 3 X.XX I XL 

PROFESSIONAL PAPER l OG PLATE 21 

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Depth !,955 meters 

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152 33 173 2 X ,.,. 153 24 " 180 188 1!54 191 I X 194 155 I 199 

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122 GEOLOGY AND BIOLOGY OF NORTH ATLANTIC DEEP-SEA CORES 

Pelagic foraminifers and diatoms occur in all de()'rees 

of rel~tive abundance in the same deposits. In sa~ples H-159, H-160, and H-164 both pelagic foraminifers 

and Coscinodiscus are so abundant that the washed 

residue is composed almost wholly of the two kinds of 

organisms. In sample H-86 (core 9), the pelagic foraminifers are subordinate in volume in a Coscinodiscus 

ooze. In 18 samples, Coscinodiscus constitutes either 

a large or principal part of the volume of the residues. 

. It is a significant fact that the most varied and prohfic faunas of benthonic Foraminifera were found in 

the cores from shallowest water and the least varied 

in the cores from deepest water. 

OTOLITHS 

Plate 23, figures 10-19 

Otoliths were found in 8 samples in cores 8 12 and ' ' 13. These were submitted to L. P. Schulz, of the 

United States National Museum, who informed me 

that they apparently came frmn small teleost fishes and 

that for lack of comparative material they are at present 

not identifiable. 

These otoliths, it will be noted, occur in the three 

cores from the shallowest depths. 

OSTRACODA 

The ostracodes were submitted to W. L. Tressler, of 

the University of Buffalo, for study. He has contributed a separate report, part 4 of this professional 

paper. A few specimens have been found since his 

report was completed and have been included in my 

chart, plate 21, though they have not been added to 

his records. These additional specimens do not seem 

to change the general features of distribution as presen ted by Tressler. 

While recording the distribution of the ostracodes it 

soon became obvious that the most varied faunas and 

the greatest number of specimens were found in the 

cores from the shallowest water, whether in cold, 

normal, or warm zones (as indicated by the Foraminifern.). On the contrn.ry, the cores from the deepest 

water are characterized by a nearly uniform rarity 

of specimens and lack of variety. 

This feature of ostracode distribution in the cores is 

characteristic of marine ostracode faunas now living. 

In his descripti~·n of the ostracodes from these cores 

Tressler indicates that 7 of the 27 species identifiecl 

have been recor ed only from water deeper than 

Murray's line, th Lt is, the 200-meter line. These 7 

species were found in cores 6, 7, 8, 12, and 13, with 

11 occurrences in the cold-temperature zone, a similar 

number in the normal zone, and 9 in the warm zone 

or normal to warm zone 1 as indicated by the Foraminifera. 

1 For explanation of these temperature zones see part 2, Foraminifera, p. 48. 

All the other species, except Paracytherois producta 

and perhaps Cytheropteron alatum, have been recorded 

from a wide range of depths. 

PTEROPODA 

Plate 23, figures 5~9 

The pteropods from the cores were submitted to 

H. A. Rehder, of the United States National Museum ' whose report is part 5 of this professional paper. Owing 

to the importance of the pteropods as a source of ecological data, I shall briefly call attention to certain interesting features of their distribution. 

Pteropods are more widely distributed in core 8 

than in any of the others. They are abundant in 

three and present in eight other samples. In core 12 

they were found in six samples, in four of which they 

were so abundant that the sediment is a globigerinapteropod ooze. In core 13 they were found in one 

sample and were doubtfully present in another. According to inferences based on associated pelagic 

Foraminifera, nine pteropod-bearing zones were deposited when the water temperature a~ the respective 

coring stations was colder than it is today, three or 

four when like that today, and three when warmer. 

It is significant that the pteropod shells occur in the 

cores from the shallowest water, with the possible 

exception of core 7 (sample H-48), in which a fragment 

identified with uncertainty as a pteropod was found. 

The water at core station 7 is 3,250 meters deep, 

which is only 20 meters deeper than that at core station 12 and not an unusual depth for pteropod shells. 

The distribution of shells at all places in the cores is 

in harmony with the bathymetric distribution of 

ostracode shells in the present oceans at the depth and 

latitude represented by the cores. 

Pteropod oozes are generally restricted to comparatively small areas. They are found most commonly 

around islands or on submarine ridges far removed 

from land and in shallow, warm, or temperate water. 

Pteropod ooze commonly intergrades with globigerina 

ooze and generally ranges from 800 to 3,000 1neters 

in depth. Pteropod shells are reported to be rare in 

sediments deposited at a depth greater than 4,000 

meters (2,200 fathoms). The absence of pteropod 

shells from the deeper water of many areas seems to 

be a result of their high solubility rather thn.n the 

complete absence of a pteropod fauna fron1 the shallowwater zone above. Though pteropod ooze is comparatively restricted, the organisms are very widely distributed, even in cold regions. For example, Limacina heliciria (Phipps) and Clione limacina are reported 

from the Arctic region n.nd L. antarctica Woodward 

from the Antarctic by Pelseneer. 2 

2 Pelseneer, Paul, Report on the Pteropoda; Challenger Rept., Zoology, vol. 23, 

pp. 21, 22, 1888. 
PART 7. MISCELLANEOUS FOSSILS AND SIGNIFICANCE OF FAUNAL DISTRIBUTION 123 

RADIOLARIA 

Radiolaria are rather generally present in cores 3 to 7 

9, and 10, but they are subordinate to the foraminifers, 

diatoms, and probably siliceous sponges in importance 

as rock-forming agents. No radiolarian ooze was 

found. To a considerable extent, the estimates of 

abundance of the radiolarians as detmmined from 

samples prepared for Foraminifera is inaccurate, because the smaller forms may have passed through the 

sieve, and the ordinary methods of washing a sediment 

for foraminifera do not always separate a radiolarian 

skeleton from the matrix. 

A peculiarly large type of radiolarian was found in 

core 6, sample H-42. (See pl. 22, fig. 19.) It agrees 

closely with the original description and figure of 

Oroscena huxleyi by Haeckel 3 and was reported by 

him from the North Atlantic (west of Canary Isla.nds) 

at a depth of 5,000 meters (2,740 fathoms). This and 

related species were found, as reported by Haeckel, 

in water of similarly great depth. 

SHELL-BORING ORGANISM 

Plate 22, figures 41-46 

At various places in several of the cores (especially 

in cores 8, 12, and 13 and rarely in cores 4, 6, and 7) 

occasional specimens of bottom-dwelling Foraminifera, 

especially Pyrgo, and a few Ostracoda were found to 

have one or more circular holes bored tlu·ough the shell. 

One specimen of the foraminifer Globorotalia sp. was 

found that had each chamber bored. The organism 

evidently required a hole for each chamber to remove 

the contents of a shell. The organism that bored this 

shell, as shown by many other examples, seemed to 

have been unable to select beforehand the most appropriate place for boring, because a hole was frequently 

begun over a suture or so near one that after penetrating the outer layer a septal or other buried wall was 

encountered. When this happened the animal evidently moved over to a new location and bored a new 

hole: 

The identity of the boring organism is uncertain. 

It was a bottom-dwelling form, be~ a use only the bottom-dwelling Foraminifera and Ostracoda are bored. 

The holes have a diameter of 0.09 to 0.17 millimeter. 

They are circular and are smaller at the bottom than 

at the top. They are not conical, however, as the 

sides curve inward toward the relatively small hole at 

the bottom. The organism was undoubtedly very 

small, and the great smoothness and circular shape of 

the holes strongly suggest enzyme action rather than 

mechanical excavation by radulae. Only one gastropod specimen (part of the columella) was found, and 

a Haeckel, Ernst, Radiolaria: Challenger Rept., Zoology, vol. 18, pt. 40, p. 1599, pl. 

12, fig. 1, 1887. 

it was found in a sample containing bored foraminifer 

shells. Evidence that the boring organism was a 

gastropod accordingly depends principally on the 

similarity in fmm of these bore holes to holes bored by 

gastropods through shells of larger invertebrates rather 

than on the occurrence of this one gP,stropod fragment. 

SILICEOUS SPONGE SPICULES 

Plate 22, figures 1-14 

Tetraxon and rrwnaxon siliceous sponge spicules 

are widely distributed through all the cores but those 

from the deepest water. At a few horizons they occur 

in sufficient numbers to constitute an appreciable proportion of the washed residues of the sediment. It is 

not at all improbable that some samples fortuitously 

contained the remains of a single sponge closely assembled at the place of burial and therefore give an 

exaggerated appearance of abundance. Nevertheless, 

the distribution is so general through all the cores that 

·the average number of spicules found in these small 

samples appears to represent the average spicule content 

of the sediments. If the spicule content of these sedi~ 

ments represents the average content of deep-sea sediments elsewhere, an immense amount of silica is precipitated through the agency of sponges. In these pa.rticular 

sediments, judging by the washed residues, sp~:mgespicule silica probably exceeds the volume of radiolarian 

silica. 

MISCELLANEOUS 

Very few holothurian spicules were found. A single 

definitely recognizable gastropod specimei1, represented 

by only the columella of a shell, and a few small fragments of shells that might have belonged to gastropods 

were found. Four fragments definitely recognizable 

as pelecypod shells and one fragment apparently of a 

pelecypod were recovered. 

Not all benthonic organisms left recognizable fossils, 

but they recorded their presence in the immense amount 

of work accomplished. No unaltered soft tissue of 

any organism or chitinous remains of Crustacea were 

found. Only siliceous and calcareous or phosphatic 

shell structures survived destruction by seavengers or 

saprophytes. It is evident from these fossil-bearing 

sediments that every bit of organic material available 

as food has been utilized one or more times until no 

reeognizable struetures of soft tissues remain. In this 

respect these Reeent or relatively late sediments resemble the eonditions of fossil preservation that are 

commonly eneountered in outerops of aneient marine 

sediments. 

The sediment at the top of core 10 (sample H-95) 

was burrowed by an organism of unknown identity. 

This zone of sediment is discussed by Bramlette and 

Bradley in part 1, Lithology and geologie interpretations. 
124 GEOLOGY AND BIOLOGY OF NORTH ATLANTIC DEEP-SEA CORES 

USE OF FOSSILS AS INDICATORS OF DEPTH 

The only groups of fossil organisms that are sufficiently well represented in number and morphologic 

detail to permit a natural classification are the Foraminifera, Diatomaceae, Ostracoda, and perhaps the 

Radiolaria. The Metazoa, except the Ostracoda, and 

Echinoidea are represented either by fragments or parts 

which do not admit of very close classification or by 

only a few specimens and offer a very meager source of 

ecological data; for example, sponge spicules nre numerous and widely distributed but cannot be classified 

closely enough to yield much information about their 

identity or distribution. 

The pteropods are locally an exception. Though 

pelagic and widely distributed in tropical to arctic 

waters, the distribution of pteropod shells in bottom 

sediments is limited to a zone of lesser depth than 

foraminfer shells. The lower limit of depth in which 

pteropod shells are insoluble is rarely greater than 

3,000 to 4,000 meters. Though depth itself is not the 

immediate factor that limits the downward range of 

pteropod shell stability, depth is closely correlated with 

the involved combination of carbon dioxide content, 

temperature, salinity, and hydrostatic pressure (listed 

in order of importance), which do determine the 

solubility of calcium carbonate in sea water. Though 

it is sometimes stated that pteropods inhabit the warm 

temperate and tropical waters, they are in fact widely 

distributed and are found even in arctic waters. 

Likewise the pteropod shells in the cores are not 

restricted to the sediment deposited from the warmer 

waters but occur also in the zones of gJacial marine 

sediment. Some of the cores were taken from bottoms 

within the existing zone of pteropod shell stability in 

the North Atlantic and some from bottoms below that 

zone. The cores collected from this zone of stability 

contain pteropod shells, whereas those from below 

contain none. Inasmuch as all the cores, including 

those from deeper bottoms, contain remains of normal 

foraminiferal faunas from the pelagic realm, the 

distribution of pteropod fossils among the cores and 

within each individual core gives a clue to the past 

history of sea levels. 

All the core stations lie within and some near the base 

of thP zone of stability of foraminifer shells. The shells 

of Globigerinidae in several of the cores from the deepest 

water showed the effects of etching. 

The sources of evidence on depth just described are 

not strictly paleontologic, as they are a product of the 

relationship between the physical and chemical character of the water and the solubility of shells of dead 

organisms-a matter of preservation. Several of the 

other groups represented are also largely or entirely 

pelagic, and as the cores lie well within their more or 

less extensive bathymetric range of shell stability they 

give us Jittle iniormation on depth, 

The only bottom-dwelling organisms besides the ostracodes and echinoids that, from a taxonomic standpoint, are adequately represented in the cqres are the. 

bottom-dwelling Foraminifera, which compose a faun~ 

of greater taxonomic variety than the other fossils. So 

little systematic collecting or dredging and study has 

been done with C'.lose attention to factors of distribution 

related to depth and to the problem of possible mixture 

of existing forms with fossil shells in submarine exposures of pre-Recent beds that even the Foraminifera 

cannot yet be used for a detailed analysis of ecology. 

However, several general aspects of marine animal distribution make it possible to use the bottom faunas as 

indicators of depth within rather broad limits. 

It seems to be generally accepted that the variety 

and population density of marine faunas is by far the 

greatest in the zone of light or close thereto. The depth 

of the zone of light penetration varies through a wide 

range and is controlled by a number of factors, principal 

of which are turbidity of the water, latitude (or angle 

of light incidence), and, locally, the density of floral 

and faunal population. In the Temperate Zone light 

apparently capable of causing photosynthesis penetrates 

as much as 100 meters. Below this depth the variety 

and density of the bottom-living population decreases 

rapidly, and the changes per unit of depth become less 

and less marked. The changes in faunal composition 

between the zone of light and 1,000 meters is far greater 

than ~.he change between 1,000 and 4,000 meters. 

These features of bathymetric distribution are a 

coarsely graduated yardstick with which the bathymetric distribution of the core faunas can be measured. 

In sediments that contain remains of a moderately 

varied and populous assemblage of bottom-living animals the absence of bottom-living faunas or species 

(except a few evidently prratic specimens) characteristic 

of the zone of Jight or of shallow water, may be considered as evidence that the sediments were deposited 

in deep water. As the sediments in these corPs were 

deposited under alternately glacial and nonglacial 

climates, it is difficult to suppose that the absence of 

shallow-water organisms was caused by any factor 

except depth or factors depending on depth. 

Bottom-dwelling, shallow-water marine invertebrate 

faunas from the Mesozoic to Recent have been characterized by the predominance of Mollusca. In the core 

samples, bottom-dwelling Mollusca are conspicuous by 

their absence. Of the many thousands of fossil specimens found in these cores bottom-dwelling Mollusca are 

the most poorly represented, and some of these are undoubtedly deep-water forms, as, for example, the shellboring organism which was possibly a gastropod. 

Mollusca are not present on all shallow-water bottoms, 

but they are so common and so widely distributed in a 

great variety of shallow-bottom environments that the 

complete absence of their remains in sediments of such 

variety as those in the cores would be hard to explain 
PART 7. MISCELLANEOUS FOSSILS AND SIGNIFICANCE OF FAUNAL DISTRIBUTION 125 

had the water at any time been shallow. If it were 

argued that they were absent because of high salinity 

at times of reduced ocean level, it would then be necessary to explain why such powerful effects of salinity 

were not registered in faunal records elsewhere. 

Barnacles and bryozoans are also conspicuous by 

their scarcity. These organisms are extremely abundant in a variety of shallow-water communities. 

SIGN1FICANCE OF DISTRIBUTION RELATIVE TO HYPOTHESES OF EXTREME CHANGES IN OCEAN LEVEL 

The bathymetric distribution of the organisms represented in these cores has a significant bearing on the 

hypothesis of fluviatile origin of submarine canyons. 

Before describing this evidence the hypothesis will be 

outlined very briefly. 

The continental shelves in the middle and low latitudes of the world are notched with deep canyonlike 

valleys, some of which are obviously continuations of 

existing major stream valleys, whereas others are short 

and, though very deep, appear to be strictly local 

notches in the margin of the shelf. The ~anyons so far 

described appear to have either a narrow V -shaped 

·cross section, or, if comparatively wide, they have steep 

walls. The gradient is steep, at least locally, even in 

the long canyons. Thus the valley form is distinctly 

youthful. One feature of the submarine canyons that 

should be kept in mind during the following discussion 

is the great depth of the floors of many canyons below 

existing sea level. The floors of the Georges Banks 

Canyons, according to Stetson,4 are 1,200 to 8,000 feet 

(375 to 2,400 meters) below sea level. The mouth of 

the submarine Hudson River Canyon is at a depth of 

approximately 2,000 meters. Others are still deeper. 

The origin of these canyons rema.i.ns an enigma. 

Several hypotheses of origin have been suggested, but 

our paleontologic data from the cores seem to be relevant most particularly to the fluviatile hypothesis of 

Shepard,S Veatch,6 and perhaps also to that of Hess and 

MacClintock. 7 A comprehensive review of the problelll 

and. hypotheses has recently been publishC'd by Douglas 

. Johnson.8 

Though Shepard proposes a number of cooperative 

but subordinate causes, his hypothesis relies principally 

on stream erosion during intervals of greatly lowered 

sea level that were caused by evaporation of water from 

the seas and temporary storage in the Pleistocene ice 

sheets. He estimated 9 that the sea level was lowered 

4 Stetson, H. C., Geology and paleontology of the Georges Banks Canyons, Part 1, 

Geology: Geol. Soc. America Bull., vol. 47, p. 341', 1936. 

6 Shepard, F. P., The underlying causes of submarine canyons: Nat. Acad. Sci. 

Proc., vol. 22, pp. 496-502, 1936. 

6 See unsigned article, Ice age history of the earth: Science, new ser., vol. 88, supp., 

p. 7, 1938; and more particularly Veatch, A. C., and Smith, P. A., Atlantic submarine 

valleys of the United States and the Congo submarine valley: Geol. Soc. America, 

Special Papers, No.7, pp. 25-48, 1939. 

7 Hess, H. H., and MacClintock, P., Submerged valleys on continental slopes 

and changes of sea level: Science, new ser .. vol. 83, pp. 332-334, 193·,, 

s Johnson, Douglas, Origin of submarine canyons: Jour. Geomorphology, vo .. 1, 

pp. 111-129, 23G--243, 324-339, 1938; vol. 2, pp. 42-1\:~, 133-156, 213-234, 1939. 

9 Shepard, op. cit., p. 501. 

3,000 feet or more (approximately 1,000 meters). This 

figure is to be discussed below. 

According to Veatch the lowest level that the sea 

reached, as measured by the submarine canyons, is 

represented by the Congo Canyon, off the coast of 

Africa, which extends to a depth of 3,000 to 3,500 meters 

below present sea level. Veatch supposes that the 

cutting of this canyon began in post-Mousterian (Old 

Stone Age) time, and that the ocean did not finally 

return to its present level until 5,000 years ago, or after 

the beginning of written history. The time and extent 

of the changes of sea level supposed by Veatch make 

the following' discussion regarding Shepard's hypothesis 

pert in en t also to that of Veatch. 

The deeper submarine valleys are not reported to 

change character consistently at or near the 1,000-

meter contour but continue without change of shape into 

depths r:anging from 2,000 to 3,000 meters or even more. 

If, therefore, these particular hypotheses of fluviatile 

origin are to be consistent, it is necessary to assume that 

there were one or more changes in sea level of at least 

2,000 meters and more likely 3,000 meters. The 

hypothesis of Hess and MacClintock differs from 

Shepard's hypothesis principally by supposing a change 

in sea level caused by deformation of the hydrosphere, 

but they are not specific as to ultimate causes. 

The bearing of paleontologic data from the ·deep-sea 

cores will be discussed first in relation to supposed 

changes in sea level of 2,000 meters during Pleistocene 

time. The discussion relative to extreme changes of 

2,000 meters applies so much more decisively to the 

hypothesis of Veatch that the reader will be left to make 

his own deductions for a 3,000-meter change. 

Several significant features of the distribution of the 

fossils in the cores have either been suggested above or 

are shown in the chart, plate 21. These and additional 

points may be summarized as follows: 

1. The most varied and prolific bottom-dwelling 

faunas were found in the cores from the shallowest 

water, and the least varied and least prolific were found 

in the cores from the deepest water . 

2. Though the bottom-dwelling faunas in each core 

vary somewhat in specific and generic composition from 

zone to zone, they generally have a similar bathymetric 

facies throughout. _ 

3. No defimtely identifiable very shallow-water or 

intertidal faunas were found in any of the cores. Very 

shallow-water and intertidal bottom-living Mollusca 

ftre entirely absent. The specimens of shallow-water 

Foraminifera, such as Elphidium and Elphidiella, and 

shallow-water bryozoans are very rare and so erratically 

distributed that they are evidently not indigenous. 

During the time represented by the cores, Elphidium 

and Elphidiella have been two of the most common or 

prolific and characteristic bottom-living Foraminifera 

in very shallow water around the North Atlantic.. 

4. 'fhe bottom-living faunas in each core not only 
126 GEOLOGY AND BIOLOGY OF NORTH ATLANTIC DEEP-SEA CORES 

have a similar bathymetric facies, but the bathymetric 

facies of each core is characteristic in a general way of 

the present depth at which the core was collected. 

5. In the present oceans ostracode shells are rarely 

found at depths greater than 4,000 meters (2,200 

fathoms). In the cores from deeper water they are 

rare or absent, but in those fron1 shallower water they 

are common. Out of 27 species of ostracodes identified 

from the cores, 7 species have not been recorded from 

shallow water. According to the temperatures indicated by associated Forarninifera, 11 out of 31 of the 

occurrences of these 7 species were in cold, 11 out of 31 

in normal, and 9 out of 31 in warm zones. The cores 

represented are 6, 7, 8, 12, and 13. 

6. Pteropods are locally abundant in the three cores 

from the shallowest water and absent in those from the 

deepest. Shell fragrnents uncertainly identified as 

pteropods were found in one sample frorn cores 7 and in 

one from core 9. Pteropods are rather widely distributed in the pelagic zone of warm and temperate 

regions, but their shells rarely or never accumulate in 

the abyss at depths greater than 4,000 meters. 

7. As discussed more fully elsewhere (see pt. 1), the 

time interval represented by the core samples evidently 

extends back through part and perhaps much of the 

Pleistocene. It therefore includes some of the more 

important glacial intervals involved in Shepard's 

hypothesis and all of the time supposed by Veatch. 

8. Miscellaneous circumstances of significance in 

connection with the above polnts are that the cores were 

sampled at small intervals, every lithologic zone or 

change was represented by samples, and only 6 samples 

out of 184 were nearly or completely barren of calcareous fossils. 

If the sea level were lowered 2,000 meters, the areas 

represented by cores 8 and 13 would be 720 and 45 

meters, respectively, above water. The faunas in these 

cores have a broadly similar facies throughout and 

contain no bottom-living assemblages that are characteristic of the zone of light and certainly none that are 

characteristic of very shallow water or the intertidal 

zone. Furthermore, a reduction of level by 2,000 · 

meters would reduce the depth at the location of core 12 

to the present depth of core 8, and cores 7 and 9 to the 

present depth of core 13, but the population density 

and faunal variety of these cores reflect no such major 

shifts. The zones of the most abundant and varied 

fossils in core 12 (samples H-131 to H-134) were deposited in water of normal or warm temperature, and therefore do not seem to have been introduced by a reduction 

of sea level during a cold period unless by slight chance 

the local n1arine climate were the reverse of the general 

climatic trends in glacial intervals. 

The ostracodes were most varied and common in 

cores 8, 12, and 13 and were rare or absent from samples 

in cores from deeper water. A reduction of 2,000 

meters or even 1,000 meters in sea level should have 

introduced zones containing a greater abundance of 

ostracode shells in the cores from deeper water. 

Pteropod shells were found in cores 12 and 13 and 

abundantly in core 8 in warm, normal, and even some 

cold zones. Their absence from any part of the cores 

from deeper water must be due to (1) the former absence 

of these organisn1s in the pelagic faunas in the area and 

time represented (2) solution of the shells before burial, 

or (3) solution of the shells after burial. A complete 

absence of pteropods in the pelagic faunas in the vicinity 

of all cores from deeper water seems improbable, 

because pteropods have a wide distribution. It also 

seems unlikely that pteropod shells once buried and 

protected by surrounding sediments deposited during a 

low-water interval would be ·dissolved when the ocean 

water rose to normal level. Solution of shells before 

burial, therefore, seems to be the most likely explanation 

and their absence in1plies deep water. 

In addition to the evidence relating to the continuity 

of the bathyn1etric facies of the fossils within each core, 

no definite evidence of emergence, such as indications 

of subaerial erosion, weathering, and bedding structures 

characteristic of very shallow water, were observed in 

these cores. 

It may be proposed that the times of greatest water 

removal were obviously periods of low temperature and 

increased salinity and consequently greatly reduced 

marine faunas, thus producing zones with few or no 

fossils. The biological record in these cores does not 

indicate such a conclusion. The cores were sampled 

closely. Every lithologic or stratigraphic change was 

represented by the H series of samples. No such 

n1arked alternation of zones characterized by prolific 

warm-water faunas and of zones either barren of fossils 

or characterized by cold-water or depauperate faunas 

were found. On the contrary, zones containing 

Globigerina pachyderma or other indicators of cold or 

cool climatic conditions were well populated for the 

depth represented, and the assemblage of bottomdwelling forms contained no definite evidence of shallowwater conditions. As already stated above, only 6 

samples out of 184 were found to be nearly or completely 

barren of calcareous organisms. The absence of shallow-water faunas under such circumstances as these 

has more than negative significance; furthermore, the 

location of samples was determined almost entirely by 

lithologic character, and no zones were left unsampled 

because they appeared to be barren. 

The history of the Foraminifera during late Cenozoic 

(including Recent) time seems to have considerable 

bearing on any hypothesis involving enormous, widespread changes in ocean level within any fraction of the 

Pleistocene epoch. First, it may be noted that the 

modern fauna of Foraminifera began in Miocene time. 

The assemblage changes in oceanic areas during and 

since that time have been as a whole rather gradual or 
PART 7. MISCELLANEOUS FOSSlLS AND SIGNIFICANCE OF FAUNAL DISTRIBUTION 127 

gradational and are related more to local or regional 

migrations, the advent of variations, or the extinction 

of a few species, rather than to extensive or abrupt 

changes in the generic as well as the specific con tent of 

the assemblages of the world. 

. Total area of marine water, 365,490,000 square kilometers. 

Keeping this fact in 1nind, we may turn aside to 

calculate certain pertinent physical implications in 

the hypothesis of great changes in ocean level. The 

following figures are based mainly on data assembled by 

Littlehales. 10 

Total volume of water ________________________________________ _ 

Cubic kilometers 

1, 330, 000, 000 

Between strand and depth of 0.2 kilometers: 

Area, 30,600,000 square kilometers (8.4 percent). 

(0+0.2) Volume, 

2 

X 30,600,000 __________________________________________________________ _ 3, 060, 000 

Between depths of 0.2 and 1.0 kilometer: 

Area, 16,400,000 square kilometers (4.4 percent). 

(0.2+] .0) . Volume, 

2 

X 16,400, 000 _________________________________________________________ _ 9, 840, 000 

Between depths of 1.0 and 2.0 kilometers: 

Area, 18,050,000 square kilometers (4.9 percent). 

Volume, (l.O~ 2.0) X 18,050, 000 __________________________________________ - ___ ---- ____ ---- 27, 075, 000 

Deeper than 2.0 kilometers: 

Area, 300,440,000 square kilometers (82.3 percent). 

Volume of upper 2.0-kilometer layer (in the area where the ocean is more than 2.0 kilometers deep), 

2.0 X 300,440, 000 ____________________________________________________________________ _ 600,880,000 

Total volume of marine water 0.0 to 2.0 kilometers deep (48 percent of total volume 

ofwate~--------------------------------------------------------------------- 64~85~000 

From these approximate data it is evident that a 

general change in ocean level of 2,000 meters would 

involve nearly 50 percent of ail marine water. A 

change of such order would profoundly affect marine 

organisms in two respects. First, it would nearly 

double the salinity, and second, it would enforce 

extensive 1nigrations to and from embayments and 

epicontinental seas, the areas where the great majority 

of marine organisms live, except the pelagic inhabitants 

of the open ocean. 

It is generally agreed that the removal of water during the Pleistocene would have had to take place 

principally by evaporation, because freezing of ocean 

water in place would have a comparatively small 

effect on ocean level unless marine ice were pushed onto 

land. Even so, freezing is a fractionating process the 

efficiency of which varies greatly according to the local 

or general opportunities for removal of the brine as the 

water crystallizes from the solution. According to 

Veatch's hypothesis the water was also removed by 

evaporation. If half of all ocean water were removed 

mainly by evaporation it is probable that the salinity 

would be nearly doubled; furthermore, it is practically 

certain that such an increase in salinity would be 

accompanied by a change in proportions of the salt 

content. The proportion of the more soluble halides 

would increase because of the precipitation of the less 

soluble salts though base exchange might affect the 

proportions. 

The effects of extreme change of salinity on marine 

life remain more or less problematical. Laboratory 

experiments on the reaction of organisms to changes in 

salinity have been made and indicate considerable 

adaptability where the changes are slow, but these 

experiments are not very in1pressive from a paleontologic point of view, because a relatively insignificant 

number of species have been represented by the experiments, and especially because slow-working factors that 

in time may profoundly affect the history of a species 

or fauna are hardly possible to evaluate or reproduce in 

the laboratory. 

Ecological animal geography is a source of significant 

though complicated information on the influence of 

salinity on the distribution of life in time and area. 

Comparisons of the distribution of life are likely to be 

complicated by the presence of ecological or historical 

factors that vitiate, or at least make doubtful, any eonelusions as to simple ea.sual relationships. It may be 

noted, however, that the Caspian Sea eontains a fauna 

of undoubted marine origin, but it is known to lack the 

groups of marine .invertebrates that are intolerant of 

1narked variations in salinity. The salinity is around 

13 parts per thcusand, whereas the normal salinity of 

the oeeans is about 35 parts per thousand. The Baltic 

Sea ranges in salinity from about normal at its ju11ction 

with theN orth Sea to 2.5 parts per thousand where it is 

most diluted by fresh water. The Baltic is accessible 

to marine organisms, but in the areas of lowest salinity 

the fauna is reported 11 to be extremely limited in varieties of marine invertebrates. These and similar 

to Littlehales, G. W., Configuration of the oceanic basins: Nat. Research Council 

Bull., "ol. 85, pt. 5, pp.13-46, 1932. 

u Hesse, Richard, Allee, W. C., and Schmidt, K. P., Ecological animal geography, 

pp. 283-287, New York, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1937. 
128 GEOLOGY AND BIOLOGY OF NORTH ATLANTIC DEEP-SEA CORES 

examples indicate a deletereous effect of low salinity. 

Marine areas of very high salinity are unfavorable 

for marine life, but it is not always certain whether high 

salinity is the primary cause or is one of several related 

causes; accordingly such examples do not give a definite, simple answer to our question. It is regarded as 

significant, nevertheless, that areas of high salinity are 

inhabited by abnormal faunas. 

Indirect but significant evidence on the influence of 

salinity as a factor in ecology is the long-enduring line 

of demarcation between marine and fresh-water life. 

A few forms that are very tolerant of salinity changes 

can pass freely. Some of them feed and a very few 

propagate at will in either fresh or saline water, but the 

number of such forms is exceedingly small in comparison 

with the less tolerant species, genera, and even major 

groups that are mostly or even completely restricted 

to each realm. Although not definitely or simply conclusive, the history and geographic distribution of 

marine organisms raise serious doubts that extensive 

changes in salinity could have happened even once, to 

say nothing of four times, during the Pleistocene without causing large-scale changes in the history of marine 

life of the time. 

Universal or very extensive lowering of sea level, as 

much as 2,000 meters, would drain the majority of epicontine.ntal seas and isolate the remainder and would 

result in connecting many islands and larger land 

masses. The following land connections in the middle 

and equatorial latitudes would result from such changes 

of sea level: Florida and Venezuela through the West 

Indies; Yucatan and Cuba; the East Indies and the 

Philippines with Asia and probably also with Australia 

through one or more bridges; and Africa with Eurasia 

through several very broad connections. A lowering of 

sea level sufficient to permit subaerial erosion of the 

Congo submarine canyon as supposed by Veatch would 

have connected Madagascar and Africa. It may be 

stated, however, that the faunas of Australia and Madagascar seem to have been isolated for a much longer 

period than that represented by Pleistocene and Recent 

time. 

It has been· suggested that if the present-day influences of elevation on climate were effective during 

periods of greatly lowered sea level, many mountain 

areas, such as the middle and perhaps the southern Appalachians, would have stood high enough to have been 

glaciated at times of widespread glacial climates. Evi-. 

· dence of mountain glaciation is lacking in these 

Appalachian regions. . 

The paleontologic record indicates that repeated migrations and intermingling of faunas and floras caused 

by diastrophism result in rapid changes in life history. 

Extreme changes in sea level would force the life in 

epicontinental seas, where the great majority of species 

of marine organisms live, to migrate and intermingle 

extensively. Such an extensive recession of the ocean 

would result in a great complex of changes in biologic 

barriers,. ecologic provinces, temperatures, currents, 

local balance between evaporation and fresh water 

supply, and extreme changes in composition of the 

water. The distance of migration would be very great 

in many places, and important differences in substrates 

would be encountered in most regions. Organisms 

finding temporary haven in isolated seas would likely 

fare as those in the Black and Caspian Seas did. So, 

it is probable that extreme changes in sea level would 

have more drastic effects on marine life than would 

periods of diastrophism if shore lines and the volume 

and composition of ocean water remained more or less 

unchanged. As I have already stated, late Cenozoic 

history of the Foraminifera does not contain evidence 

of such radical and universal faunal changes. The evidence then, as recorded in these few cores, gives no 

support to a hypothesis of a repeated or even a single 

general lowering of the sea level of as much as 2,000 

meters during or since the Pleistocene. 

The preceding argument against a 2,000-meter, universal change of sea level during Pleistocene time seems 

to be supported by fairly reliable evidence for the time 

represented by the cores. The evidence relative to 

a general change of 1,000 meters in sea level-aside 

from the fact that the hypothesis thus restricted fails to 

explain the parts of typical canyons below the present 

1 ,000-meter contour-is much less definitive, principally 

because, within the zone habitable by calcareousshelled animals, the facies of marine faunas changes 

more gradually with depth in the abyss than it does in 

shallow water. However, the preceding arguments 

are relevant, at least in a modified measure, to the 

supposition of a depth change of 1,000 meters. 

A reduction of sea level by 1,000 meters would reduce 

the depth of the areas represented by cores 7 and 12 to 

that of the present depth of core 13; core 13 to the 

present depth of core 8; and core 8 so nearly to the zone 

of light that variants or even some members of shallowwater faunas should appear in considerable number. 

Evidence for changes of even 1,000 meters in sea level 

seems to be lacking in the distribution of the variety, 

population density, and faunal composition of the fossils 

in these cores. 

The paleontologic evidence from these cores is equally 

adverse to supposing an extreme change of sea level 

from any other cause than glacial climate that simultaneously affects the whole earth and accomplishes the 

removal of the water by evaporation. The hypothesis 

of Hess and MacClintock shares some but not all of 

the objections to Shepard's hypothesis. Hess and 

MacClintock, however, might argue that the depth of 

the ocean along the line of the core stations did not 

change much while the hydrosphere was deformed by 

the motivating force which they postulate. If any of 

these hypotheses involving extreme changes in ocean 

level during Pleistocene time are proved to be true, the 
PART 7. MISCELLANEOUS FOSSILS AND SIGNIFICANCE OF FAUNAL DISTRIBUTION 129 

present general understanding of faunal adapability 

will have to be changed most drastically. 

Murray and Hjort 12 presented evidence, based chiefly 

on the alternation of sediments that characterize widely 

different depths of ocean bottom, which they interpreted as indicating great changes in ocean bottom 

level, but they do not cite specific localities, and it is not 

possible to decide whether the alternation is a result 

of changes in ocean level, temperature of sea water, 

local diastrophism, or other possible causes. The 

changes in shell accumulation as represented in our 

12 Murray, John, and Hjort, Johan, The depths of the ocean, pp. 174-75. !London, 

Macmillan Co., 1912. 

cores seem to be caused more by long-period variations 

in climate than by extreme changes in depth of water. 

The absence of very fine lamination from these cores is 

probably due largely to the reworking of sediments by 

bottom-dwelling organisms, such as echinoids and 

holothurians. Also the sediment may have accumulated so slowly that microorganisms had ample opportunity to destroy any thin layers of organic matter that 

accumulated and that would~ if buried and preserved, 

give rise to lamination. Bottom currents, though 

feeble, may have aided in the destruction of thin, 

alternating laminae of different substances on the 

sea floor. 

PLATES 22-23 

131 
PLATE 22 

MISCELLANEOUS FOSSILS 

FIGURES 1-14. Siliceous sponge spicules. ·1-11 and 13-14, X 10, core 8, H-63; 12, X 15, core 6, H-35. 

15-16. Brachiopod. Cryptopora gnomon (Jeffreys). X 5. 15, Interior view; 16, exterior view. Core 12, H-133b. 

17-18. Brachiopod. Gryphus sp. X 15. 17, Exterior view of dorsal valve; 18, exterior view of pedicle valve; both valves 

belong to the same individual. Core 8, H-61a. 

19. Radiolarian. Oroscena huxleyi Haeckel. X 15. Core 6, H-42. 

2Q-22. Three specimens of Bryozoa, apparently representing a new species of Jaculina. X 15. Core 8, H-61a. 

23-24. Two specimens of Bryozoa belonging to the genus Entalophora. X 15. Core 8, H-69. 

EcHINOIDEA 

FIGURE 25. Echinoderm (?) spine. X 10. Core 12, H-133b. 

26. Pourtalesia miranda. Primary spine. X 15. Core 12, H -117. 

27. Aceste bellidifera. X 15. Core 12, H-35. 

28. Plexechinus hirsutus. Primary spine. X 10. Core 12, H-47. 

29. Echinus affinis. Base of a spine. X 10. Core 12, H-133b. 

30. Heriiiaster expergitus. Spatulate spine. X 15. Core 12, H-152. 

31. Pourtalesia miranda. Primary spine from upper border of buccal cavity. X 15. Core 12, H-152. 

32. Pourtalesia miranda. Primary spine from upper border of buccal cavity. X 15. Core 12, H-152. 

33. Pourtalesia miranda. Primary spine from upper border of buccal cavity. X 15. Core 12, H-152. 

34. Echinus affinis. Base of a spine. X 15. Core 12, H-133b. 

35. Urechinus naresianus. Plate. X 10. Core 12, H-133b. 

36. Echinus ajfinis. Part of a plate. X 10. Core 12, H-133b. 

37. Urechinus naresianus. Plate. X 15. Cor~ 12, H-133b. 

38. Urechinus naresianus. Plate. X 15. Core 12, H-133b. 

39. Echinus affinis. Interambulacral plate from actinal surface. X 10. Core 12, H-133b. 

40. Echinus affinis. Interambulacral plate from actinal surface. Core 12, H-133b. 

SHELL-BORING ORGANISM 

FIGURES 41-46. Foraminifera showing work of shell-boring organism. 

41. Shell of Pyrgo? sp. X 15. Core 12, H-134. 

42. Same specimen. X 60. 

43. Shell of Pyrgo murrhina (Schwager). X 15. Core 12, H-133b. 

44. Same specimen. X 60. 

45. Shell of Pyrgo aff. P. depressa (D'Orbigny). X 15. Core 12, H-134. 

46. Same specimen. X 60. 

132 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 196 PLATE 22 

MISCELLANEOUS FOSSILS FROM THE NORTH ATLANTIC DEEP SEA CORES. 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 196 PLATE 23 

MISCELLANEOUS FOSSILS FROM THE NORTH ATLANTIC DEEP SEA CORES. 
FIGURES 1-2. Yoldiella expansa Jeffreys. Left valve. 

3-4. Yoldiella insculpta Jeffreys. Left valve. 

PLATE 23 

PELECYPODA 

X 10. J, Exterior view; 2, interior view. 

X 10. 3, Exterior view; 4, interior view. 

PTEROPODA 

Core 12, H-133a. 

Core 12, H-134. 

5-7. Spiratella planospira Rehder, n. sp. X 15. 5, Apertural view; 6, ventral view, 7, dorsal view. Core 8, H-61a. 

8. Spiratella retroversa (Fleming). X 10. Apertural view. Core 12, H-133a. 

9. Clio pyramidata (Linne). X 3. Core 12, H-133b. 

PISCES 

lQ-19. Unidentified otoliths of teleost fishes. X 15. 10, 11, and 14, core 8, H-61a; 12 and 13, two views of same specimen, 

core 12, H-131; 15, core 8, H-70; 16 and 17, two views of same specimen, core 13, H-155. 

FIGURES 20-38. Barnacle plates, external and internal aspects of specimens. X 15. 

2Q-21. Core 13, H-157. 

22-23. Core 12, H-133b. 

24. External only. Core 12, H-133b. 

25-26. Core 8, H-75. 

27-28. Core 8, H-75. 

29-30. Core 8, H-75. 

31-32. Core 13, H-156. 

33-34. Core 13, H-156. 

35-36. Core 8, H-69. 

37-38. Gore 3, H-158. 

133 

INDEX 

A Page 

Aceste ___ ---- __ ---- _______ ---- __ _ _ ____ __ _ __ __ ___ __ __ __ _ _ __ ____ _ _ __ _ _ __ _ ____ _ __ 114 

bellidifera ____________________________________________ 111,114,115,116,117, pl. 22 

ovata______ _ _ _ __ __ _ _ __ _ _ ___ _ __ ___ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ ___ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ ___ _ _ _ _ ___ _ 114 

weberL____ ___ _ ___ __ __ __ __ __ _ _ ___ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ __ __ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ ___ 114 

Acknowledgments for aid __ ----------------------------------- __________ XI, XIV, 119 

A!ropsidae •• _______ ------------------ ____ -------------------------- ______ ____ 111 A&-opsis •.•• __ _ _ ___ __ __ _ __ _ _ _ _ ___ __ _ _ _ ___ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ __ 114, 116 

rostrat&--------------------------------------------------------- 111,114,116,117 

atfinis, Echinus. ----------------------------------------- 111,112,115-116,117, pl. 22 

Age of sediments _____ -------------------------------------------------------- vm alatum, Cytheropteron. __ _ _ _ __ _ __ __ __ _ ___ ___ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ ____ _ _ 122 

amitinum, Ophiocten _________ ------------ __ ------------------------------ ____ 112 Analyses, cheinical. _ ___ ___ _ __ _ ___ ____ _ ___ ___ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ __ __ __ _ _ _ _ _ ___ x 

mechanicaL______________________________________________________________ VIII 

antarctica, Limacina ________ ---------------------------------------- ________ __ 122 

Archaeogastropoda___________________________________________________________ 108 

Archaeology, significance of core study for _________________________________ xm-XIV 

Ash, volcanic, composition and distribution __ -------------------------------- VII 

B 

Baltic Sea, salinity of _______ ·------------------------------------------------- 127 Barium, in sediments _____________ ------______________________________________ VIII 

Barnacles •• __ ------------------------------------------------------------ 120, pl. 23 

Basaltic glass, occurrence and character oL ---------------------------------- VIII 

BaiSler, R. S., quoted-------------------------------------------------------- 120 

bellidifera, Aceste. _ --------- ____ -------- _________________ 111,114,115,116, 117, pl. 22 

blanchardi, Jaculina _____________ -------------- _______ __ ____ __ ______ __ __ __ __ __ 121 

Boron, in sediments ___ ----------_-------------- ______________ ---------------- VIII 

Bottom currents, evidence of_________________________________________________ VII 

Bourgueticrinidae_. _ ___ __ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ __ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ __ 111 

Brachiopoda.---------------------------------- ______ · ________________ 120, pls. 21, 22 

Bradley, W. H., introduction bY------------------------------------------- xm-xv Bryozoa __________ l_ ______ ------------------ ________________ ------ 12o-121, pls. 21, 22 

c 

Canyons, submarine, origin of ________ ~--------------------------------------- 125 

Carbonate, in sediments •• ----------------------------------------------- vm, pl. 21 

Carnegie Institution of Washington, work on deep-sea cores by _________ vrr, XI, XIV 

Caspian Sea, salinity of ___________________ ---------------- _________ -------____ 127 

Clark, A. H., Echinodermata _______________________________________________ 111-117 

Climate, relation of sediments to------------------------------------- VII, VIII, x, xm Clio pyramidata _____ -------------------- _______ --------------- __________ 108, pl. 23 

Clione limacina ______ --------- ____ ------------------------------ __ ------------ 122 

Congo Canyon, depth oL.--------------------------------------------------- 125 

Cooper, G. A., quoted ________ ------------------------------------____________ 120 

Core samples, methods used in obtaining ___________________________________ XIV-xv 

Core stations, location of ___ --------------------------------------------------- XIV 

Correlation of zones represented in the cores__________________________________ vn Coscinodiscus. _ __ _ ___ ____ ___ _ __ __ __ ____ __ _ _ _ __ _ __ __ _ _ __ __ __ _ _ __ _ _ __ __ _ _ __ _ _ 121, 122 

Crinoidea, species of, in the cores-------------------------------------------- IX,111 Cryptopora_____ __ __ _ _ _ __ __ _ _ __ _ _ __ _ __ _ _ _ __ _ ___ _ __ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ 120 

gnomon __________________________ ------------------------------------ 120, pl. 22 

Currents, bottom, evidence of ______ ------------------------------------------ VII Cyclostoinata _______________ ------ _ _ __ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ ___ _ __ ____ __ __ ___ ___ _ __ _ ____ __ __ 120 

Cytheropteron alatum ______________________________________ ------ ____ -------- 122 

D 

d~ressa, Pyrgo afi' _________________________ ~--------------------------------- pl. 22 

Diatomaceae •• ------------------- __ ------------------------------------ VIII-IX, 121 

E 

Echinidae. ____ ---- _________ ---- ______________________________ ------ _ _ __ ____ __ 111 

Echinodermata, bathymetric range of _______________________________________ 116,117 

determination of__________________________________________________________ 111 

occurrence oL---------------------------------------------- IX, 115-116,121, pl. 20 plate. showing _____________________________________________________________ pl. 22 

publications on___________________________________________________________ 111 

species of, association oL----------------------------------------------- 116-117 list of __ --- ___________________________________ _.______________________ 111-115 

Echinoidea, species of, association of__________________________________________ IX 

species of, in the cores----------------------------------------------- 111, pl. 22 

,Page 

Echinosigra_____ _ _ __ ____ __ _ _ __ ____ __ _ _ __ ____ __ _ _ __ ___ __ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ __ __ __ ____ 111 

Echinus. __________________________ --- ____________________________ ------ __ _ _ __ 112 

atfinis __________________ -·-------------------- ________ 111, 112, 115-116, 117, pl. 22 

Elphidiella. __ -- ______ .... __ . ___ . _ --.... -----. __ .. __ . __ .... _. _ ------. _ -- __ . _ VID, 125 

Elphidium ___________________ : _______ ------------------ ________________ vm, 121, 125 

Entalophora ____________________________ ---------------------- ______ ,_ _____ 120, pl. 22 

expansa, Yoldiella ____________________________________________________ 107, pis. 22,23 

expergitus, Hemiaster __ -------------------------------------- 111, 115, 116, 117, pl. 22 

F 

Farraday Hills, features oL-------------------------------------------------- XIV Faunas, efi'ect of salinity on _________________________________________________ 127-128 

Fecal pellets, evidence of, in sediments_-----'--------------------------------- vm Foraminifera, age and correlation oL _______ ---------------------------------- VID 

distribution and environmental significance oL ____________ VII-VID, 121-122,125 

plate showing _______________________ -------------------------------------- pl. 22 

Foraminiferal marl, meaning of term ________________________________________ VII-VID 

Fossils, distribution of _______________________ ------------------ IX, 125-129, pis. 20, 21 

miscellaneous, notes on _____________________________________ -----_______ 12o-123 

plate showing _______________________ .:: _______ ------------ ____ ---------- pl. 22 

preparation and study o'------------------------------------------- 119-120 

use of, as indicators of depth-------------------------------------------- 124--125 

G 

Gastropoda, environment of.--------------------------- ___________ ----------- IX 

occurrence and significance 0'----------------------------------------- 108, pl. 21 

Georges Banks Canyons, depth of.___________________________________________ 125 

Glacial marine deposits, features of___________________________________________ vu 

Glass shards, occun:ence and character of.------------------------------------ VIII.. 

Globigerina ooze, meaning of term __ ~--------------------------------------- vn-vm Globigerina pachyderms ________ ------ ___________________________ ._.__________ 126 

Globorotalia sp _________________________________ . _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ __ _ ___ ___ ___ 123 

gnomon, Cryptopora. _ ----------------------------- ____________ ---------- 120, pl. 22 

Grain size of sediments_------------------------ _____ . ________ ---------------- vm 

Gryphus_. _ ---------------------------------- __________ -------------- ____ 120, pl. 22 

H hastatum, Ophiocten. __ __ _ _ _ _ __ __ __ _ _ __ __ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ __ _ _ __ ____ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ __ _ __ 112 

helicina, Limacina __________________ . _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ __ _ _ __ __ _ _ ___ ___ __ _ _ __ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ 122 

Hemiaster ____________________________ ---------------------------------- ____ 115, 121 

expergitus ________________________________________________ 111,115,116,117, pl. 22 

Hemiasteridae _______________________________________________ ----.--- __ _ _ __ __ _ _ 111 

Henbest, L. G., Miscellaneous fossils and significance of faunal distribution_ 119--129 

hirsutus, Plexechinus __________________ ..,. _____ ---------------- 111,113,116, 117, pl. 22 

Rolothuroidea, distribution of _____ ----------------------------------.--------- pl. 21 

Hudson River Canyon, depth oL-------------------------------------------- 125 

huxleyi, Oroscena __ ------------------------------------------------------ 123, pl. 22 

I 

Ingolfstations, association of species in cores at _____________________________ 116-117 

insculpta, Yoldiella ______________________________________________ 107, 108-109, pl. 23 

Introduction to complete report___________________________________________ xm-xv 

1 

Jaculina ____________ ---------- ___ ----------------------------------------- 121, pl. 22 

blanchardL _____ . ---------------. ______ ---------- ___________ -------------- 121 

L 

lesueurii, Spiratella. _______ -------------------------------------------------- 108 

limacina, Clione1----------- ______ ---- ___ ----------------- _____ ---- __ __ ____ ____ 122 

Limacina antarctica __________________________________________________ ------__ 122 

helicina. _ _ _ _ _ __ __ _ ___ ______ _ _ __ ___ ____ ___ ____ __ _ _ __ ____ ___ ___ __ _ ___ ____ __ 122 

Limatula sp. ___________ --- ____________________________________ . ___ _ _ __ ___ __ 107-108 

Lithologic zones in cores, correlation of________________________________________ vn 

Lithology and geologic interpretations ______________________________________ vn-vm Location of region studied ______________________________________________ vn, XI, XIV 

lofotensis, Rhizocrinus ______________________________________________ 111,115,116,117 

M 

Marl, foraminiferal, meaning of term _______________________________________ vn-vm 

){editerranean Sea, sediments in, significance of __ ------------------------- xm-XIv 

miranda, Pourtalesia ____________________________ IX, 111, 113-114, 115, 116, 117, pl. 22 

XVII 
XVIII INDEX 

Page 

Mollusca, significance oL _______________________________________________ IX, 108-109 

species oL ___________ --------- __________________________________________ 107-108 

Mud-feeding organisms, role oL ____________________________________________ vii,129 

murrhina, Pyrgo ___ ---------------------------------- ________________________ pl. 22 

·N 

naresianus, Urechinus ______________________________________ 111, 113, 116, 117, pl. 22 

0 

Ocean level, changes in, significance of distribution relative to _________ . _____ 125-129 

Ophiocten_ --------------------- __ ____ ____ ____ __ _ _ _ _ __ ___ _ ___ _ __ __ _ ___ __ _ _ _ _ __ 112 

amitinum ____ ----~-~------ ------------ _ _____ ____ __ ____ ___ _ _____ _ ______ ____ 112 

hastatum _____________________________________________________ -------- _ ___ 112 

pattersonL ______________________________________ ·- _ __ _ _ __ ____ __ ___ _ __ ____ 112 

sericeum ____________________________ ---------------- ____________ 111, 112, 116,117 

signata __ ----------- ____________________________ :_________________________ 112 

Ophiolepididae_________ __ __ __ ___ _ _ _ __ _ ___ _ _ _ _ __ __ _ ___ ___ _ __ __ __ __ _ _ __ ___ _ __ __ 111 

Ophiuroidea ________________________________________________________________ IX, 111 

··organic content of sediments _________________________________________________ IX-X · 

Oroscena huxleyL ________________________________________________________ 123, pl. 22 , 

Osburn, R. C., quoted ______________________ ·__________________________________ 121 

Ostracoda. __________________________________________________________ ·-- IX, 122, 126 

Otoliths, occurrence oL __________________________________________________ 122, pl. 21 : 

plate showing ____ ----------- ______________ ------------------------------- pl. 23 

Outline of complete report____________________________________________________ v 

ovata, Aceste ______________________________________________ ------------------- 1t4 · 

p 

pachyderma, Globigerina _______ .: _____________ ---------- ____ ------------------ 126. 

Palagonite, character and occurrence oL______________________________________ viii· 

Paracytherois producta __________________________________ , _____________ -------- 122 

pattersoni, Ophiocten _______________ ------------------------------------ ______ 112: 

Pelecypod a, environment oL ______________________________________ ----------- IX : 

occurrence of _________________________________ ------- _____________ 107-108, pl. 21 I 

plate showing _______________ --------"- ______________________ -------------- pl. 23' 

significance of_ __________________________________________________ -------- 108-109 

Piggot, C. S., coring device designed by_ ------------------------------ vn, XIV-XV 

foreword by _______________________________________________ -------------- XI-XII 

Pisces, plate showing_-------------------------------------------------------- pl. 23 

Plankton, relation of, to organic content______________________________________ x 

planospira, Spiratella ____________________________________________________ 108, pl. 23 · 

Plexechinus_ ---------- _____________________________ ----------- _ -------------- 113 ~ 

hirsutus __________________________________________________ 111,113, 116, 117, pl. 22 

Porosity of the sediments ________________________________________ .____________ VIII : 

Pourtalesia ____________________________ . ____________________________________ 111, 113 

miranda _______________________________________ IX, 111,113-114,115, 116;117,pl. 22 ~ 

Pourtalesiidae. ____________________________________________ ----------- _ ------- 111 · 

producta, Paracytherois ______________ -· ______ ------------------------------ __ 122 · 

Pteropoda, distribution of ___________________________________________ VIII, IX, 108, 122 

plate showing _____ ------------"------- ________ ---------------------------- pl. 23 

significance of ___________________________________________ ---------------- 109,126 , 

use of, as indicators of depth______________________________________________ 124 ' 

-pyramidata, Clio _______________ -----------------------------------------· 108, pl. 23 

Pyrgo __________________________________________________________ ---------- 123, pl. 22 

murrhina ___________________________________________________________ ------ pl. 22 

aff. P. depressa. ______________________ --- __________________________ . ______ pl. 22 : 

R Page 

Radiolaria ___ ·----~---------------------- _________________ --- ____ -----·--- 123, pl. 22 

Radium, concentration of, on ocean bottom___________________________________ XI 

Rare elements, spectroscopic tests for _________________ --- __ - ___ ------ ____ ---__ VIII 

Region sampled, extent of ____________________________ -- ______ ._----- ____ --- __ vn, XI 

Rehder, H. A., Mollusca ___________________________________________________ 107-109 

retroversa, Spiratella _______________________ --------- _ -----------,-------- 108, pl. 23 

Rhizocrinus. _ ------ ____________________________________________ --- _ _ _ ______ __ 115 

lofotensis. ______________________________________________________ 111, 115, 116, 117 

verrillL _____ -------- _________________________ . __________ ---- ____ ------ 115 

rostrata, .Ai:lropsis ______________________________________________ ---- _ 111,114,116, 117 

s 

Salinity, effect of, on fauna ___________________________ ---------------------- 127-128 

Sampling and examination of cores, methods oL·-------------------~------ XIV-XV· 

Sediments, age, correlation, and grain size oL __________________ -------------- VIII 

organic content of_________________________________________________________ IX-X 

. Selenium content of sediments __________________________________ :_____________ x sericeum, Ophiocten ____________________________________________ -- __ 1111 

112, 116, 117 

Shell-boring organism _____________________________________________________ 123, pl. 22 

.signata, Ophiocten ____________________________________________________ ---- -·--. 112 

Spectroscopic timts of sediments _______________ . _________________________ ----__ VIII 

Spiratella lesueuriL ____________________________________ --- ________ ------------ 108 

planospira _ ------------------------------------------- _____ ----~-·- __ 108, pl .. 23 retroversa ______________________________ ---- ______ ------- _ ---- __ --,-- __ 108,.pl .. 23 

Sponge spicules ______________________________________________ ----~------- 123, pl. 22 

Sterechinus __________________________________________ --- ________ --- ___ -------- 112 

Summary of complete report ___________________________________ -- ___ .:::-~-- ____ vm-x 

T 

Temperature, relation of type of sediment to ________ -------------------- VII, vm, x 

Texture of sediments, relation of, to organic content ____________ -- ________ ---- x 

Trochidae. _ --------------- ________ ---------- c _______ - ------------------------ 108 

u 

Uranium, in ocean sediments ____________________ c- __ - ----- ____ ~--- --- _ ------- XI 

Urechinidae. _______________________________________ -- _-- _______ ------ __ ------ 111 

Urechinus •• ____ ---------- _______________________________________ --- ______ ---- 113 

naJesianus ______ ------------------ ________________________ 111, 113, 116, 117, pl. 22 

wyvillii ______________________________________________________ --- __ -- _ ----- 113 

v 

verrilli, Rhizocrinus lofotensfs ____________________________________ ------ ____ -- 115 

Volcanic ash, composition and distribution oL ___ ,___________________________ VII 

Volcanic glass, occurrence and character of ___________________________________ " .. VIII 

w 

:;~~i~:r:~i~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~ ~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~~'~ ~~~·~ ~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

y 

114 

113 

Yoldiella expansa _____ --------------------------- _______ -------------- 107, pis. 22,23 

insculpta _______________ --------------- __________ --·- --.--- ____ 107,108-109, pl. 23 

sp_ --------------------------------.. ---------- __ . ___ c_ ~--- "---------------- 107 

z 

Zones represented in the cores, correlation oL ___ . ______ ----- ___ · __ · __ ---------- vn 
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