VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY IN 1909 



By R. LYDEKKER 



In this review I make, as usual, no pretence to give a complete 

 survey of the work accomplished last year in vertebrate 

 palaeontology, but merely notice the more interesting and 

 important papers which have come under my own personal 

 observation. Among these papers, special interest attaches to 

 the one by Mr. Gidley on the skull and skeleton of the American 

 Tertiary mammal Piilodus, a near relative of the English Jurassic 

 Plagiaulax, in which it is shown that both genera are diprotodont 

 marsupials. From a distributional point of view the discovery 

 in the Pliocene of North America of remains of a peacock 

 and of antelopes of an African type is as unexpected as it is 

 interesting; while from the morphological standpoint a surprise 

 is afforded by the discovery of the " rodent-goat " in a cave in 

 Majorca. Among many other papers of importance, special 

 attention may be directed to Dr. Hay's account of the extinct 

 turtles of the genera Archelon and Protostega and their bearing 

 on the origin and relationship of the modern luth or leathery 

 turtle. 



As a work dealing very largely with vertebrate palaeontology 

 in general, a translation of Prof. C. Deperet's " Les Trans- 

 formations du Monde Animal " published in the International 

 Scientific Series under the title of the " Transformations of the 

 Animal World " claims first mention. Unfortunately the English 

 version is sadly marred by the incompetence of the translator, 

 as is exemplified, among other instances, by his use of the word 

 "square" when he means the quadrate bone. 1 



In connection with the above may be noticed a paper by 

 Dr. R. F. Scharff, published in the American Naturalist for 

 September, on the evidence in favour of the existence of a 

 land-bridge between North and South America during the early 

 portion of the Tertiary period. In the author's opinion, the 

 two continents were in communication at the epoch in question 

 by means of a strip of land joining Western North America 



1 See review in Science Progress, 1909, 3, 709, 



649 



