164 BULLETIN : MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 



these must be added also a single tooth of a Cladodout shark from the 

 Permo-Carbouiferous of Blue Springs, Nebraska, which is made by- 

 Cope ^ the type of his so-called Styptobasis knightiana. The Missouriau 

 fish-fauua of Kansas and Nebraska consists ahnost exclusively of Elas- 

 mobranchs, and is directly successional to the Lower Coal Measure and 

 Mississippian assemblages occurring throughout a wide area to the east- 

 ward of these States, its relatio*ns with the Chester fauna of Kentucky, 

 Illinois, and Missouri being not its least striking feature. 



During the last few years a considerable quantity of new material has 

 been brought to light, chiefly through the activity of Prof. Edwin H. 

 Barbour, Director of the Nebraska University Geological Survey, and 

 his sister. Miss Carrie A. Barbour, of the State University at Lincoln. 

 The writer owes it to the kindness of Dr. and Miss Barbour that all of 

 the specimens collected by them have passed through his hands, and 

 that a number of them are illustrated in the present paper. Acknowl- 

 edgments are also due to Dr. S. W. AVilliston of Chicago Universitv, 

 and to Prof. W. C. Knight of Wyoming State University, for the gener- 

 ous loan of material under their charge. Having these facilities at 

 one's command, it seems desirable to present a synopsis of the trans- 

 Missourian fish-fauna which shall be as complete as the present state of 

 our knowledge permits, and this is the endeavor of the following pages. 



The stratigraphy and palaeontology of the eastern parts of Kansas 

 and Nebraska have been studied in great detail by a number of geol- 

 ogists during the last few years with special reference to the question of 

 the homotaxial relations of the so-called Permian beds. The discovery 

 of supposed Permian fossils from this region was first reported by Swal- 

 low in 1858, and in the spirited controversy which followed. Meek, 

 Swallow, Hawn, Shumard, Hayden, Newberry, Marcou, Geinitz, and 

 others participated, arguing either for or against the recognition of 

 the Permian as a distinct epoch in North American geology. Later 

 the subject was discussed by White and Broadliead to some extent, and 

 more recently Prosser, Cragin, Cummins, Keyes, Tarr, Haworth, Knight, 

 Darton, and Freeh have made important contributions to the literature 

 of the Permian question. 



It seems to have been established that there are from 1000 to 1350 

 feet of fossiliferous sediments overlying the Upper Coal Measures (Mis- 

 sourian series) of the Kansas-Nebraskan area, in which faunas succeed 

 one another uninterruptedly from base to summit, as was first contended 

 by Meek. The lower 400 feet (Neosho and Chase formations) con- 



1 Proc. U. S Nat. Mus., Vol. XIV., 1891, p. 447. 



