VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY IN 191 1 



By R. LYDEKKER, F.R.S. 



Of the various memoirs and papers relating to vertebrate 

 palaeontology published during 191 1 which have come under my 

 notice, none contains any startling new discovery and the 

 summary of the year's work consequently appears as a record of 

 steady progress in all departments, rather than of epoch-making 

 advances. Perhaps the most important items relate to the dis- 

 coveries in Africa and to the work accomplished in connection 

 with the primitive reptiles of the Permian epoch. 



As in past years, I make no claim to give a complete summary 

 of the work done during the period under review but refer 

 only to the more important papers which have come under my 

 own notice. As the Palaeontographical Society's volume for 

 191 1 did not appear till 1912 was well advanced, its contents 

 have not been included in this review. 



A feature of the year's work is the relatively large amount of 

 literature dealing with remains of animals from the early historic 

 and prehistoric epochs and their bearing on the origin of domes- 

 ticated breeds. Prof. J. C. Ewart, for instance, has furnished a 

 chapter on the animal remains to Mr. James Curie's volume 

 entitled A Roman Frontier Post and its People ; the Fort of 

 Newstead, in the Parish of Melrose. 1 In this chapter the 

 author reiterates his well-known views with regard to the exist- 

 ence of several fundamentally distinct types of horses to be met 

 with in the superficial formations of the British Isles and the 

 Continent and their relationships to modern breeds and races. 

 He has also much to say with regard to cattle, more especially 

 the so-called Celtic shorthorn ; but perhaps the most interesting 

 as being the most novel portion of the memoir relates to sheep. 

 The latter, it appears, are represented at Newstead by two distinct 

 types, one of which is akin to or identical with the so-called 

 turbary sheep (Ovis aries palustris) of the Swiss pile-dwellings, 

 which was a long-tailed breed, with short upright horns like 



• Glasgow, 191 1, 

 554 



