VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY IN 191 1 581 



author commences with a historical review of the acquisition of 

 the present state of our knowledge of the Permian stegocephalians 

 and fishes, giving notices of the various schemes of classification 

 which have been from time to time proposed and concludes this 

 introductory review with the arrangement he himself adopts 

 for the Amphibia. With the exception of the single genus 

 Lysorophus, which is referred to the same ordinal group 

 (Urodela) as modern salamanders, all the Permian forms are 

 included in the Stegocephalia, which is divided into Microsauria 

 and Temnospondyli. Most of the members of the latter are 

 included in the rhachitomous section characterised by the bodies 

 of the vertebrae being composed of one basal and two lateral 

 pieces ; but Cricotus and Cricotillus, in which the vertebral bodies 

 are solid but only every other one carries a neural arch, in 

 accordance with Cope's original scheme form a second or 

 embolomerous, section. 



The systematic and the morphological reviews of the Permian 

 Amphibia follow this introductory survey. Prof. Williston's 

 volume, to which reference was made when discussing reptiles, 

 also treats of some of these Permian stegocephalians. 



Two specially important memoirs on European fossil fishes 

 have been issued during the year. It appears that in 1903 the 

 Carnegie Museum at Pittsburg acquired the famous collection of 

 fishes from the Upper Eocene of Monte Bolea, Italy, made by 

 Baron Ernst de Bayet, of Brussels, sometime secretary to 

 H.M. the late King Leopold. This collection forms the 

 subject of a descriptive illustrated catalogue, drawn up by 

 Mr. C. R. Eastman and published as No. 7 of the fourth 

 volume of the Memoirs of the Carnegie Museum. The second 

 of the two memoirs, which is by Dr. R. H. Traquair, deals 

 with the fishes of the Wealden formation of Bernissart, Belgium, 

 famous for its yield of skeletons of the iguanodon. At the con- 

 clusion of his descriptive account the author contrasts the 

 fish-fauna of the Bernissart Wealden with that of the corre- 

 sponding English formation. The most striking difference 

 between the two is to be found in the abundance of sharks 

 and rays in the latter and their complete absence from the 

 former. That this is not due to incomplete knowledge of the 

 Belgian fauna is rendered evident by the fact that no less than 

 2,927 specimens from Bernissart were examined by Dr. Traquair. 

 The explanation seems to be that the Belgian Wealden was 



