936 NOTE ON A LABYRINTHODONT FOSSIL FROM COCKATOO ISLAND, 



subsequent reversal of all climatic conditions drove them in course of 

 time northwards again. But probably they met with arms of the 

 sea, or some other obstructions which interfered with their return 

 march, and they disappeared from the earth. They appear suddenly 

 as the very highest type of Amphibia in the Carboniferous period, 

 and by the incoming of the Liassic they are lost. (A doubtful 

 exception I take the liberty to disregard). They were, among the 

 frogs and their compeers, like crocodiles among lizards, various 

 in size, sometimes gigantic, slow perhaps, but powerful, and bent 

 on devouring. 



I ought not to omit — though it is not perhaps a very strong point 

 in evidence — the occurrence of very similar, if not identical forms- 

 of a small fossil Entomostracon, Estheria sp. in the Indian Upper 

 Gondwana, the Argentine District of South America, and the 

 Australian Waianmatta. I have seen the small bivalve carapace 

 from tha borings at Moore Park, through Dr. Cox's kindness, and 

 I have also found them near Campbelltown. The same genus — 

 I dare not say species — is quite common in the Triassic and 

 Rhaetic beds in England, and upon the continent of Europe. 



And so one draws to the conclusion that the older school of 

 geologists was right in the assumption that similar Faunas testify 

 to contemporaneous epochs. Much has been said and written 

 against this view ; and the present distribution of animal and 

 vegetablelife upon the globe is the very strongest — and indeed it 

 is very strong — weapon of the assailants. Still, when you find 

 the penological characters alike, when you discover Unionidce t 

 Palceoniscus, Cleithrolepis, Platysomus, Mastodonsaurus as fossils, 

 and Ceratodus, Hatteria, Marsupials, and Monotremes still living in 

 thesame province, you are, or at least I am, driven to believe that the 

 old view was right, and that it is only since the Jurassic period 

 that the great geographical differentiation of Plants and Animals 

 commenced. 



I ought perhaps to have commenced by stating what part of the 

 animal we see preserved upon the stone. But I am a little 



