From Charles Lyell [16 January 1857]1
Mammalia
in the whole world2
Eocene Thanet Sands 0
hiatus 0 Secondary Maestricht beds 0
White Chalk 0
Chalk Marl 0
Upp. G.S 0
Gault 0
Lower G.S 0
Weald Clay ————————— 0
Hastings beds ———————— 0
Upper Purbeck 0
Middle do. ———————— 12
Lower do. ————————– 0
Portland Ool. 0
Kimmeridge 0
Calc. Grit 0
Oxfd. Clay. 0
Lower Ool. (Stonesfield) 4
Lias. 0
Trias (upper) Stuttgardt. 1
I have casts & beautiful drawings made at my expence when last at Stuttgard of the Microlestes & am much pleased at knowing what that oldest of yet found mammals was.3
So the “Nochnichtgefundenseyn” (a capital specimen of a German substantive) of the angiospermous plants in rocks older than the chalk offers no reason to anticipate the rarity of warm blooded quadrupeds—4
I hope you are all well— Your brother gives us news now &
CD annotations
Footnotes
Bibliography
Bonney, T. G. 1919. Annals of the Philosophical Club of the Royal Society written from its minute books. London: Macmillan.
Summary
Enumerates fossil mammals known in Secondary strata.
Lack of angiosperm plants in rocks older than Chalk is no reason to anticipate rarity of warm-blooded quadrupeds.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-2039
- From
- Charles Lyell, 1st baronet
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- unstated
- Source of text
- DAR 205.9: 394
- Physical description
- AL inc †
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 2039,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-2039.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 6