266 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



saline content from the surrounding water. The hlood in this case, as 

 in the crayfish, may be richer in salts than the surrounding water, or, 

 as in certain marine bony fishes, may be poorer. 



Phylogeny of Anthropomorpha.* — Arthur E. Brown supports Cope's 

 theory of a common origin for the Anthropomorpha directly from the 

 Eocene lerauroids, independently of the line by which monkeys arose 

 from the same stock. Cope relied especially on the tendency in certain 

 races of men to tbe production of tritubercular upper molars. Brown 

 discusses the dentition, but refers also to the processes of the verte- 

 bras and the nature of the sacrum. Moreover, " the fact that before 

 monkeys, as now known, began to exist, man-like apes were far advanced 

 in development, and tbat the earliest evidence of existing genera of apes 

 is coeval with that of existing genera of catarrhines, tells enormously 

 in favour of the early and independent origin of Anthropomorpha." 



Descent of Man.f — Prof. H. Klaatsch maintains that the human race 

 had its roots in a very primitive Mammalian stock from which lemurs 

 and monkeys also diverged. That is to say, he places the origin of the 

 human twig from the Slammhaum lower down than usual. 



Plankton of Gulf of Trieste.} — Prof. C. J. Cori and Dr. Adolph 

 Steuer give lists of the contents of the tow-net for the years 1898, 1899, 

 with a table showing the relative proportions of the organisms found in 

 the different months. In most cases the results show the occurrence of 

 very striking seasonal variation. Copepods and Sagitta are always 

 present ; Flagellata, Diphyes, Pluteus-larvee, and Copelata are absent 

 only during a brief period ; but most others are limited to certain seasons 

 of the year, when they occur often in vast numbers. The Radiolaria 

 Acanthometra and Sticholonche exhibit interesting relations, for they 

 replace one another at certain seasons, the former being, generally 

 speaking, a summer form, and the latter a winter one. Apart from 

 the regular plankton-forms of the Gulf, the sporadic appearance of 

 other forms from a distance is not uncommon. Thus in August 1899, the 

 Gulf was invaded by Cotylorhiza and Salpa africana maxima, which 

 remained until the middle. of November. Broadly speaking tbe winter 

 plankton consists of Diatomacese, Sticholonche, Tintinnae, larvae of Poly- 

 ■gordius, Salpa mucronata-democratica ; in spring these are replaced by 

 larvae of Actiniaria, Tornaria, and larval molluscs ; in summer Actino- 

 metra, Nausithoe, zoeae, and young fish occur ; the water in autumn con- 

 tains chiefly the large Medusae. 



Southern Plankton. § — P. T. Cleve reports on an interesting series 

 of 35 plankton samples from the southern Atlantic and the southern 

 Indian ocean. The collection affords a good insight into the plankton 

 of the seas near the limit of drifting ice. He finds 57 forms probably 

 belonging to the " Styli-Planlcton " | of the southern hemisphere, of 

 which 86 p.c. also occur in the northern hemisphere, chiefly between the 

 Azores and Iceland. Some of them have been found in the region of 



J o 



* Proc. Acad. Philadelphia, 1901, pp. 119-25. 



t Ber. Senckenberg. Ges., 1900, pp. exxix.-exxxiv. 



t Zool. Anzeig.. xxiv. (1901) pp. 111-6 (1 table). 



§ Ofversigt k. Vetensk.-Akad. Forhandl., 1900, pp. 919-38 (12 figs.). 



J] The terms are not defined in this paper. 





