652 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



In the United States Messrs. W. D. Matthew and H. J. Cook 

 {Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. vol. xxvi. pp. 361-414) announce 

 the discovery of a new Pliocene mammalian fauna in Western 

 Nebraska, corresponding in age with the well-known Loup 

 Fork beds. The new forms include a very large species of 

 camel of the genus Pliauchenia (P. gigas) and likewise a giraffe- 

 camel (Alticamelus procerus), together with an antelope allied to 

 the modern African Hippotragus. 



In this place reference may be made to two papers in vol. xi. 

 of the Proceedings of the Washington Academy on the age of 

 the Ceratops beds of Montana and Wyoming, which have 

 generally been regarded as representing the Laramie or Upper 

 Cretaceous. In the first of the two papers Dr. F. H. Knowlton, 

 from both stratigraphical and palaeontological evidence, corre- 

 lates, however, these beds with the Fort Union series — an 

 identification which, if justified, would indicate the survival of 

 dinosaurs into the Eocene. On the other hand, in the second 

 article, Mr. T. W. Stanton denies the existence of evidence for 

 the proposed change. 



Turning to systematic work, it may be mentioned, in the 

 first place, that in the year 1884 Dr. F. Ameghino proposed 

 the name Diprothomo for one of the presumed ancestors of the 

 human species without allocating any type to the new genus. 

 Recently he obtained from a superficial stratum in Buenos Aires, 

 regarded as of Lower Pliocene age, a calvarium of low type, 

 which in his opinion is generically distinct from Homo. For 

 this supposed new genus it is proposed to adopt the name 

 Diprothomo with the affix platensis. " Diprothomo " is, however, 

 a nomen nudum, and cannot be employed in a new sense. 

 Dr. Ameghino concludes that the skull affords further evidence 

 of the view that South America is the cradle of the human 

 race. Additional testimony in favour of this opinion is stated 

 to be afforded by the lower jaw of a child with the angle 

 inflected in marsupial fashion. The Tertiary South American 

 genus Microbiotherium is regarded^as the ancestral type of most 

 mammals, and from this sprang Clenialites, the ancestor of the 

 Primates. Dr. Ameghino's paper is published in vol. xix. of 

 the An. Mus. Nac. de Buenos Aires. 



A more satisfactory piece of anthropological work relates 

 to the skeleton discovered in 1908 in the cavern of Le Moustier, 

 in the Dordogne, in a stratum lying about 30 feet below 



