Corals from asphalt deposits of the island Buton (East-Indies)

In 1933 and 1935 K. Martin described a new fauna of tertiary Mollusca from asphalt deposits of Buton 1). The collection, consisting of 35 species, shows very characteristic forms, but not a single species is known from recent, pliocene, miocene or eocene deposits. There are some affinities to miocene and recent types and as the fauna is doubtless younger than Mesozoic, Martin had good reasons to consider the fauna younger than the eocene Nanggulan beds of Java but older than the oldest known miocène fauna of the East-Indies (West-Progo beds of Java). He ascribed the Buton fossils to the Upper-Oligocene. According to Hetzel 2), however, the localities of the fossils are situated amidst the so called Sampolakosa-beds of upper-miocene or pliocene age. He tried to give an explanation of the remarkable molluscs of Buton by suggesting that the facies of the deposits might be different from any Mollusca bearing strata hitherto known in the East Indies.