Symposium on Ten Years' Progress in Vertebrate Paleontology
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Downloaded from gsabulletin.gsapubs.org on February 15, 2015 BULLETIN OF T h e GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA V O L. 23, PP. 155-266 JUNE 1, 1912 PROCEEDINGS OF THE PALEONTOLOGICAL SOCIETY SYMPOSIUM ON TEN YEARS’ PROGRESS IN VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY 1 R. S. Bassler, Secretary (Held by the Society December 29, 1911) CONTENTS Page Introduction .............................................................................................................. 155 African mammals; by W. D. Matthew................................................................ 156 Artiodactyla; by O. A. Peterson............................................................................ 162 Perissodactyla; by J. W. Gidley............................................................................ 179 Carnivora and Rodentia; by W. D. Matthew.................................................... 181 Marsupials, Insectivores, and Primates; by W. K. Gregory............................ 187 Marine mammals; by F. W. True.......................................................................... 19T Paleozoic Reptilla and Amphibia; by E. C. Case.............................................. 200 Jurassic dinosaurs; by W. J. Holland.................................................................... 204 Cretaceous dinosaurs; by R. S. Lull...................................................................... 208 Chelonia; by O. P. Hay............................................................................................ 212 Marine reptiles; by J. C. Merriam........................................................................ 221 Paleozoic fishes; by Bashford Dean...................................................................... 224 Mesozoic and Cenozoic fishes; by C. R. Eastman.............................................. 228 Correlation and paleogeography; by H. F. Osborn............................................ 232 Evolutionary evidences; by S. W. Williston........................................................ 257 Contributions to geologic theory and method by American workers in vertebrate paleontology; by W. J. Sinclair.................................................... 262 INTRODUCTION For the third annual meeting of the Paleontological Society, held at Washington, it was suggested by several members of the Council that a portion of one day might well be devoted to a Symposium on Ten Years’ Progress in Vertebrate Paleontology. This was approved by the remain ing members, and the Secretary was instructed to arrange such a sym posium, following an outline which had been submitted by Vice-President W. D. Matthew. As the time limit on these papers had necessarily to be 1 Received by the Secretary of the Geological Society of America January 31, 1912. XII— B u l l . Geol. Soc. A m ., V o l. 23,1911 (155) Downloaded from gsabulletin.gsapubs.org on February 15, 2015 156 TEN YEARS’ PROGRESS IN VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY short, little detail could be given, but in order that certain phases of the subject be discussed it was suggested that each participant include, if possible, remarks on the following points : (а) Status of our actual knowledge and principal material in different museums which has been brought together in recent years. (б) Theories accepted and rejected in recent years. (c) Hypotheses on trial. (d) Important investigations and explorations which should be made. AFRICAN MAMMALS BY W. D. MATTHEW CONTENTS Page Location and elements of the Fayflm fauna.. 156 Immigrant group.................................................... 158 Autoehthonic group ............................................. 159 Marine group ........................................................ 160 Insectivores and Primates.................................. 160 Conclusions ............................................................ 162 L o c a t io n a n d E l e m e n t s o f t h e F a y u m F a u n a The discovery of the Fayum fauna is the most important find of the last decade in vertebrate paleontology. It has added a new and most re markable type of giant quadruped, primitive stages in the evolution of the Proboscidea, Sirenia, and Cetacea, a wide variety of Hyracoidea, be sides Carnivora, Rodents, and, if Doctor Schlosser is correct, the earliest known Anthropoid Primates. The principal fauna is found in the Fluvio-marme beds of the Fayum district in Egypt, regarded as Upper Eocene by the Egyptian Geological Survey, but now generally accepted as Oligocene from the evidence of the marine invertebrate fauna in the underlying horizon. The marine mam mals and a few land mammals of doubtful affinities are found in the underlying marine formation, unquestionably of Eocene age. The Fayum fauna consists of three elements: 1. Terrestrial mammals nearly related to the Upper Eocene and Oligo cene fauna of Europe and North America, and whose ancestors are found in the Eocene of these countries. 2. Terrestrial mammals not related to the above, except through com mon derivation from the primitive Paleocene placentals, representing Downloaded from gsabulletin.gsapubs.org on February 15, 2015 Af r i c a n m a m m a l s 157 groups whose ancestors are not found in the Eocene of Europe and North America. 3. Marine mammals related to Eocene and Oligocene Cetaceans and Sirenians of Europe and North America, but in some cases more primi tive. The first group must be regarded as recent immigrants from the north ern continents. The second group may be provisionally regarded as autochthonic, evolved in Africa during the Eocene. We can not be cer tain that they were so because we know next to nothing of the early Ter tiary mammals of any part of Asia. But there are good grounds for the inference that they were not evolved in northern or north-central Asia nor in Europe, North America or South America nor Australia. The third group is presumably Mediterranean, but the presence of primitive sur vivals indicates perhaps that the North African coast was not the center of dispersal of these animals. Arranging the fauna thus, we have: I m m ig r a n t s A utochthones M a r in e 1. Carnivora (Hysenodonts) 1. Embrithopoda 1. Sirenla Hywnodon Arsinoitheriwn Eotherium Pterodon 2. Proboscidea Eosiren Apterodon Palwomastodon Protosiren Metasinopa ? Moeritherium 2. Cetacea 2. Rodentia (Theridomyids) ? Barytherium Eocetus PMomys 3. Hyracoidea Protocetw Metaphiomys Megalohyrax Zeuglodon 3. Artiodactyla (Anthracothores) Saghatherium Ancodon Qeniohyus Rhagatherium, Bmohyrax Mixtohyrax Pachyhyraa) 4. ?Insectivora Ptolemaia Metolbodotes 5. Primates Paraplthecm Propliopithecus ? Apidium More than half these genera are represented by well preserved skulls; a few by a large series of skulls of several species. Great series of vertebras, limb and foot bones have been collected, but except for the marine genera there is practically no association of skull and skeleton parts, and the identification of the bones is based on considerations of size, zoological affinities, and relative abundance of the different bones and consequently Downloaded from gsabulletin.gsapubs.org on February 15, 2015 158 TEN YEARS’ PROGRESS IN VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY is inexact or doubtful in most cases. The vertebrae, limb and foot bones of Arsinoitherium, vertebras and limb bones of Mceritherium, Palmomas- todon, and Ancodon, limb bones of Apterodon and Pterodon have been identified -with reasonable certainty. The remaining land mammals are known only from skulls and jaws (except Barytherium, jaws and parts of limbs). The results so far obtained are due in the first place to the work of the Egyptian Geological Survey and the British Museum; the American Mu seum of Natural History and the Stuttgart Museum have since secured fine collections. The earlier collections were described by Doctor Andrews in 1906; the Stuttgart and American Museum collections have not yet been fully described, but are partly known from preliminary notices. In considering the affinities of this fauna it is well to remember that Egypt is today zoologically a part of the Holarctic, not of the Ethiopian region. Its fauna includes a minority of Ethiopian genera, but is mostly related to that of southern Europe and western Asia. But in the early Tertiary the eastward extension of the Mediterranean separated Africa more or less completely from the northern world, while the Saharan desert was probably not an eeffctive barrier as it is today. Egypt was then part of an isolated Ethiopia continent, with possible Asiatic but no European connection during the early Tertiary. So much is certain from the known extent of marine formations of that period. I m m ig r a n t G r o u p Reviewing the fauna more in detail, the immigrant group includes three orders of mammals, each represented by one family. The Carnivora all belong to the Creodont family Hyasnodontidae. No modernized (Fissi- pede) carnivora are present, although these had already appeared in the European and North American Upper Eocene. The Hyaenodont genera are all Holarctic except one, which has not been found in the north, al though perhaps merely from lack of evidence. But the species are very distinct, and unfamiliar in adaptive type; one would conclude that the Hyaenodonts, invading a new field where they were not in competition with other families of carnivora, were expanding and modifying into new adaptations. The Artiodactyla include also but one family, the Anthracotheres, and of these only one common genus, Ancodon, with two or three species, allied to Upper Eocene and especially to early