MESOZOIC AND LATE TERTIARY RADIOLARIA OF ROTTI

Abstract

Re-examination of the radiolarian fauna described by Tan Sin Hok from the island of Rotti, near Timor, and considered by him to be probably Plio- cene, reveals the presence of saturnalids and other microfossils indicating a Mesozoic age. Another sample, collected by the First Netherlands Timor Expedition from a nearby locality, contains a radiolarian fauna which is probably Pliocene or Pleisto- cene in age. Twenty-five species and subspecies, six of which are new, are determined in this latter fauna, which is in some respect similar both to that of the adjacent seas of the present day and to various late Tertiary faunas previously described from Europe and North America.