A Rare Estuarine Copepod Crustacean, Enhydrosoma garienis, found in the Holocene of Kent

Abstract

AMONG some small organisms including a single ostracod shell, washed from a sample of clay brought to me for identification by Dr. W. A. Macfadyen, was a small tapering object about $\frac{1}{3}$ mm. long, terminating in a fine seta. The silty clay, penetrated by fine contemporary rootlets, had been collected from 6 in. below a Neolithic floor by Mr. J. P. T. Burchell at Lower Halstow, Kent. The object, when examined under the microscope, was seen to be a copepod complete with furcal rami and at least some of its appendages. As a zoologist, knowing how difficult it is to sort out these minute Crustacea from a few drops of mud and water, I was surprised that anyone could have found so small a specimen in a pound of dried clay and mounted it with gum tragacanth intact on a black cardboard microscope slide.