THE EEARTNG OF RECENT DISCOVERIES OF EARLY 

 TERTIARY SHELLS, NEAR TRINIDAD ISLAND 

 AND IN BRAZIL, ON HA^POTHETICAL LAND 

 ROUTES BETWEEN SOUTH AMERICA AND 

 AFRICA. 



'Bv Carlotta loAQi'TXA AIaitry, Ph.D. 



It was my good fortune lately to be sent as palseontolog'ist 

 of a geological experlition in charge of Mr. Arthur C. Veatch. 

 and under the auspices of the Cieneral Asphalt Company of 

 Philadelphia, to Trinidad Island and Eastern Venezuela. We 

 obtained fossils ranging from Cretaceous to Quaternary; but 

 the interest centred around these of early Eocene age. For true 

 basal Eocene fossils had never before been found in that region 

 or anywhere in the Antilles. Moreover, this Eocene fauna 

 formed a perfect link between the basal Eocene of the southern 

 United States and that of the Pernaml)uco beds of Brazil, the 

 a.ge of which had previously not been determined. 



The Eocene fossils were discovered by Mr. Veatch and 

 several of the other gentlemen of the expedition, on Soldado 

 Rock, an islet 1T7 feet high, lying in the Gulf of Paria near the 

 Serpent's Moutli, just west of the south-western extremity of 

 Trinidad. 



The lowest of the fossiliferous beds on this rock is an 

 extremely hard greyish to reddish limestone. Lithologically it 

 is exactly like the basal Eocene formations at Ri]>ley, ^lississippi ; 

 Fort Gaines, Georgia: and Clayton, Alabama. And this resem- 

 blance becomes most striking when fragments of the Soldado 

 rock contain shells of the same species as those of the Gulf 

 States. Indeed, it wa:^ most fortunate that, although a very 

 large proportion of the Soldado forms w^ere new, there were 

 also such very characteristic North American lower Eocene 

 species as Vcnericardia planicosta. Leinfusus pagoda, Latirus 

 iortilis. Calyptraphorus velatus var. comprcssns, and Tnrritella 

 mortoni. Very happily, mingled with these were characteristic 

 Pernambuco forms as Callista incgrathia)m, Chioue paracusis 2liv\ 

 CnaiUcra Jiarttii, all of which had never liefore been found out- 

 side of the State of Pernambuco. 



Thus I was able to correlate both the Soldado beds and those 

 of Pernambuco as basal Eocene equivalent to the Midway stage 

 of Alabama*. 



The uppermost fossiliferous bed on Soldado contained 

 fossils that were mostly new, but Ostrea thirsce, FusoHcula 

 ]iri'cnis, and Modiola alabanicnsis, and even the aspect of the 

 new species indicated a Lignitic Eocene age corresponding t» 

 the Nanafalayan stage of Alabama. 



* For complete descriptions, see Maury: " Palaeontology of Trinidad." 

 Jour. Acad. Nat Sci. Philadelphia. 2nd series. Vol. XV, pp. 25-112, 1913. 



