60 Paleontology 



No. 207. CASE, E. C. The Permo-Carboniferous Red Beds of North America and 

 their Vertebrate Fauna. Quarto, 176 pages, 24 plates, 50 text figures. 

 Published 1915. Price $4.00. 



This is the fifth monograph of the series dealing with the Permian Vertebrates 

 of the Permo-Carboniferous of North America. The first four deal with the 

 taxonomy and the morphology of the different groups of vertebrates. The present 

 describes: (1) The stratigraphy of the different beds in which the fossils occur; 

 the conditions under which the beds were deposited; the climatology of the time 

 interpreted from the deposits ; all other recognized inorganic factors constituting 

 the inorganic environment of the fauna. (2) The habits and inter-relations of the 

 animals as interpreted from their structure ; the food habits as interpreted from 

 the teeth and other parts ; the possible food supply as a check on the assumed food 

 habits. (3) The appearance of the forms, so far as known, with restorations of 

 the better-known species. (4) The origin, development, and extinction, or disap- 

 pearance, of the fauna. (5) The surface of North America in Permo-Carbonif- 

 erous time; the possible land connections of the continent with other continents 

 in reference to the possible migrations of the fauna. A synoptic table gives the 

 geographical and geological distribution of the various forms and the author's idea 

 of the proper classification. The whole monograph is a summary of our knowl- 

 edge of the fauna and an attempt to study the evolution of the group from its 

 inception to its extinction or final disappearance from the continent, in the light of 

 all recognized controlling factors, organic and inorganic. The relations of the 

 fauna to that of other continents is not treated in detail, as it is planned to con- 

 sider this phase of the matter in a continuation of the work. 



No. 283. CASE, E. C. The Environment of Vertebrate Life in the late Paleozoic 

 in North America: A Paleogeographic Study. Quarto, vi+275 pages, 

 8 figures. Published 1919. Price $3.00. 



This work is an effort to give an account of the paleogeography of North 

 America during the closing periods of the Paleozoic Era. In the author's opinion 

 paleogeography is far wider than a statement of the relative position of land and 

 water masses in any unit of geological time. Paleogeography, like modern geog- 

 raphy, is the consideration of the response of the living organism to its environ- 

 ment and in such a study all the factors, organic and inorganic, which have affected 

 the organism must be taken into account. 



The first part of the work is a statement of the elements of a paleogeographic 

 problem. The second part deals with the various factors of the environment in 

 North America as interpreted from strata of the earth deposited in late Paleozoic 

 time. Three easily distinguished provinces are recognized which are divisible into 

 sub-provinces. For each of these is given a summary account of the stratigraphy, 

 taken from the latest or more reliable sources, with a discussion of the physiog- 

 raphy, hydrography, climatology, and organic environment. A special attempt is 

 made to interpret the meaning of the sediments and sedimentary changes in terms 

 of the causes which would affect the vertebrate life of the time. 



Although the first adequate collections of vertebrate fossils have been made 

 from the rocks of the upper half of the Pennsylvanian period, the description and 

 discussion of certain areas is begun from stages as early as the Allegheny in order 

 to trace the sequence of significant events. 



The conclusion is reached that the "red-bed conditions," under which the verte- 

 brate life had its main development, were initiated by a slow uplift of the conti- 

 nent, beginning on the eastern side (where it is evidenced in places by true glacial 

 conditions) and progressing slowly toward the west. "Red-bed conditions" are 

 thus found to occur at successively higher levels from east to west, largely inde- 

 pendent of other depositional conditions. Correlation of the environmental con- 

 ditions grouped under the caption "red-bed conditions" is accomplished by the 

 recognition of distinct characters which are the direct result of an advancing wave 

 of climatic change and such conditions are recognized as a distinct environmental 

 unit, independent of, and in many places distinct from, stratigraphic (time) units, 

 which compelled the existence of a distinct and uniform type of life. 



