MICHIGAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE, ARTS AND PAPERS OF THE MICHIGAN ACADEMY OF LETTERS SCIENCE ARTS AND LETTERS EDITORS VOLUME XVIII EUGENE S. MCCARTNEY UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN CONTAINING PAPERS SUBMITTED AT THE ANNUAL MEETING IN 1932 PETER OKKELBERG UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN (The papers in Botany, Forestry, and Zoölogy of the VOLUME XVII 1932 meeting appear in Volume XVII.) “Pusilla res mundus est nisi in illo he annual volume of Papers of the Michigan quod quaërat omnis mundus habeat.” T Academy of Science, Arts and Letters is issued —SENECA, Naturales Quaestiones under the joint direction of the Council of the Academy and of the Executive Board of the Graduate School of the University of Michigan. The editor for the Academy UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN PRESS is Peter Okkelberg; for the University, Eugene S. 1933 McCartney. All rights reserved Previous publications of The Michigan Academy of COPYRIGHT, 1933, Science now known as The Michigan Academy of BY GRADUATE SCHOOL, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Science, Arts and Letters, were issued under the title, EDITOR, EUGENE S. MCCARTNEY Annual Report of the Michigan Academy of Science. Set up and printed, March, 1933 Twenty-two volumes were published, of which those Published, March, 1933 numbered 1, 21 and 22 are out of print. Copies of the PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA other volumes are still available for distribution and will BY THE PLIMPTON PRESS · NORWOOD · MASS. be sent on exchange so long as the editions last. Applications for copies should be addressed to the Librarian of the University of Michigan. CONTENTS Annual Reports embracing the proceedings of the GEOLOGY AND MINEROLOGY Academy will however, continue to be published. Applications for copies should be addressed to the SOME CHARACTERS OF THE SKULL AND SKELETON OF THE Librarian of the University of Michigan. FOSSIL HARE, PALAEOLAGUS HAYDENI. Lee R. Dice............2 The prices of previous volumes of the Papers and of STRATIGRAPHY OF THE SOUTHERN WASATCH MOUNTAINS, other University of Michigan publications are listed at the UTAH. Armand J. Eardley..................................................6 end of this volume. A STUDY OF THE INSOLUBLE RESIDUES OF THE LOWER Volumes may be ordered by addressing the Librarian of TRAVERSE, BELL, AND UPPER DUNDEE FORMATIONS OF the University of Michigan. MICHIGAN. Gerald E. Eddy ..............................................21 GREENLAND, THE ADVANCES OF A DECADE (1921-1931). William H. Hobbs .............................................................31 GEOLOGIC STRUCTURE OF A SMALL AREA WEST OF MILL SPRINGS, KENTUCKY. Thomas S. Knapp and Joseph C. Twinem ............................................................................48 A NOTE ON THE STRATIGRAPHY OF THE BRUNSWICK FORMATION (NEWARK) IN PENNSYLVANIA. Dean B. McLaughlin.......................................................................52 CORRELATION OF THE UPPER HURONIAN OF THE MARQUETTE AND CRYSTAL FALLS DISTRICTS. Justin Zinn .57 Selections from Papers of the MASAL--Vol. 18 2 – Page 1 of 64 ILLUSTRATIONS SOME CHARACTERS OF THE SKULL AND SKELETON OF THE FOSSIL PLATES HARE, PALAEOLAGUS HAYDENI XXV - XXVI. Paleologus haydeni.............................................4 LEE R. DICE XXVII. Overturned fold in Jurassic shale, north side of Salt HE fossil hare, Palaeolagus haydeni Leidy, is still Creek Canyon, Utah.......................................................19 Tincompletely known, in spite of the fact that many XXVIII. Jurassic oölitic limestone and travertine....................19 fragments of its skull and skeleton have been collected XXIX. Twelve-foot section of volcanic conglomerate in Salt from the White River beds of the Great Plains. These Creek Canyon ................................................................20 beds are considered to be Oligocene in age. XXX. View down Salt Creek Canyon.....................................20 Associated with Palaeolagus haydeni in the White River beds are the remains of a very large hare of a distinct XXXI - XXXVIII. Insoluble residues of the lower Traverse, Bell, species, Palaeolagus turgidus. These two species of and upper Dundee formations of Michigan.....................27 Palaeolagus are paleontologically the oldest known XXXIX. Typical exposure of Chattanooga shale and members of their order, the Lagomorpha. The fact that weathered shale of lower part of New Providence .........51 at its first known appearance in geological time the order is represented by two species, differing from each other FIGURES IN THE TEXT in numerous characters, indicates that the Lagomorpha had a long previous period of evolution in Eocene time 10-12. Right scapula, right innominate, and right tibio-fibula of and perhaps earlier. Palaeolagus haydeni ........................................................4 The Museum of Paleontology of the University of 13. Triassic-Jurassic columnar sections of Wasatch Mountains.......................................................................14 Michigan has two almost perfectly preserved skulls of the fossil hare Palaeolagus haydeni. Accompanying one 14. Diagrammatic sketch of the Middle Devonian unconformity of them are the complete mandible and most of the in western Michigan........................................................23 bones of the skeleton. A third specimen has the skull 15-23. Diagrams and charts showing characteristics of ice, incompletely preserved, but several bones of the winds, and air currents in Greenland..............................37 skeleton are in excellent condition. All these specimens were collected by expeditions of the University of 24. Correlation of four sections of the Brunswick formation in eastern Pennsylvania. ....................................................56 Michigan from beds of White River age, four miles south of Douglas, Wyoming. They probably are from the 25. Comparison of distribution of black shales of Brunswick Oreodon Zone. For permission to study this material I formation with boundary by Wherry and with Gwynedd- am indebted to Dr. E. C. Case, director of the Museum Lansdale boundary by Lyman ........................................56 of Paleontology. MAPS Skull 8942 (Pl. XXV) represents a very old individual with the molars much worn; the internal reëntrant angles 31. Southern Wasatch Mountains, with inset showing location have completely disappeared. The size of the skull is of the area in the State of Utah.........................................7 very small for a rabbit (see Tables I-II), being smaller 32. Location of wells and quarries from which samples were than that of the sage rabbit Sylvilagus (Brachylagus) secured for a study of insoluble residues of the lower idahoensis, which is probably the smallest living member Traverse, Bell, and upper Dundee formations ................25 of the Leporidae. The fossil skull also is considerably more flattened dorso-ventrally than is the skull of any 33-50. Maps showing routes of explorers in Greenland, living kind of rabbit or hare. Further, it is much less geological features, ice-caps, glaciers, etc. ....................32 arched than the skull of any other genus of the 51. Topography and geologic structure of top of Chattanooga Leporidae. The angle between the planes of the shale in a small area west of Mill Springs, Kentucky ......49 basioccipital and the palate is only 16.5 degrees. 52. Preliminary map showing distribution of black shales in the Triassic of eastern Pennsylvania....................................53 53. Outline map showing the location of the Marquette and Crystal Falls districts.......................................................58 Selections from Papers of the MASAL--Vol. 18 2 – Page 2 of 64 palate. In this character the young resemble the primitive form. The incisive foramina in the fossil skull extend forward between the posterior pair of upper incisors, differing in this respect from modern rabbits and hares, in which the foramina do not extend so far forward. In one of the figures (Fig. 2) of Palaeolagus haydeni given by Troxell1 a similar condition is shown, whereas in another figure given by him (Fig. 3) the foramina do not reach the incisors. The width of the combined incisive foramina in the fossil is actually and proportionally much less than in any modern leporid. In this character Palaeolagus haydeni is most nearly like the Sumatran genus Nesolagus and the A supraorbital process is present in Palaeolagus Indian form Caprolagus hispidus. haydeni, but it is only slightly developed, consisting of a The posterior palatine foramina in the fossil are of about short tapering process, directed backward and outward. the average size for the family. In the related genus, This process is somewhat imperfect in all the Romerolagus, these foramina are relatively very large, specimens, but it probably resembled that of but in Pronolagus they are very small.2 Romerolagus, a member of the same subfamily, Palaeolaginae, living today on an isolated mountain The posterior nares are narrow in the fossil, being mass in Mexico. smaller than in any wild member of the family which I have seen. But in the domestic rabbit the air passages The bony palate in the fossil species is long as are as constricted as in the fossil. On account of the compared with those of modern hares and rabbits (Pl. small size of its air passages, Palaeolagus haydeni XXVI, Fig. 1). It extends from about opposite the could have had only weak endurance in running. anterior edge of P2 to opposite M2. In modern Lepus the palate is shortened from both ends,