370 
ORIGIN OP LIFE IN AMERICA 
Brazil that are specifically and generically distinct from one 
another, although more fitted for accidental dispersal across 
the ocean than Cryptostemma is. The instances of such 
specific or generic identity of animals and plants, in fact, are 
scarce. Moreover, Cryptostemma is the single survivor that 
has yet been brought to light of the otherwise extinct order 
Meridogastra, which occupies a somewhat intermediate posi¬ 
tion between the true spiders and what are called “ harvest- 
men.”* For this reason it must, like Peripatus, be looked 
upon as an exceedingly ancient relict member of our fauna. 
Let us take another group of apparently very ancient 
animals, the worm-like and limbless coeeilians, which live 
underground. Dr. Boulengerf tells us that of the genus 
Dermophis three species are found in Central and South 
America, one in West Africa and another in East Africa, and 
that the genus Herpele is confined to Gaboon in West Africa 
and Panama. Dr. Sarasin argues that the dispersal of 
Herpele at any rate dates from pre-Cretaceous times. It 
seems possible, therefore, that these few archaic creatures 
indicating faunistic relationship between South America and 
Africa, have obtained their present range during some very 
remote geological period, when the conditions of land and 
water were entirely different from what they are at present, 
and that they are not to be regarded as instances of accidental 
dispersal across the Atlantic. The suggestion that South 
America and Africa were once united by land is not a new one. 
It has been made, as we have learnt, by various authorities on 
entirely different grounds. Considering the contradictory 
nature of the evidence, however, the problem requires close 
scrutiny. 
I have already stated that Dr. Ameghino had expressed the 
opinion, based on the evidence of the fossil mammals, that 
South America and Africa were joined by a land bridge during 
the whole of Upper Cretaceous times. During the Eocene 
Period this land connection, he thinks, became more restricted 
or narrowed down, while it still persisted incompletely as a 
chain of islands, until middle Miocene times. Dr. Ame- 
* Karseh, F., “ Uber Cryptostemma,” pp. 25 — 29. 
t Boulenger, Gr. A., “Synopsis of apodal Batrachians,” pp. 404 — 409. 
