TERTIARY LAND ROl-'lES I'.ETWEEN AMERICA AND AFRICA. 



9:s 



(ireat stress has been laid by many writers on the resem- 

 blances of South American fossils to those of contemporaneous 

 times of the Old World. Relationships have been established 

 between the South American faunas and those of France, Spain, 

 Malta. Morocco. Egypt. South Africa, and India; but until Dr. 

 Derby's work on the Paheozoics of Brazil little was said of the 

 faunal relationships of the two Americas. It fact, it was thought 

 that hardly any mingling had occurred between the species of 

 these adjacent continents. 



But this discover}- of lower Eocene forms on Soldado Rock 

 awakened my belief in the very close kinship of the North and 

 South American Tertiary life. This view was strengthened by 

 the previous discoveries of Dr. Heilprin and Dr. Dall that the 

 Antillean Oligccene has a close relationship with that of Florida. 



Nor are these kinships limited to the Tertiary. They existed 

 in tlie Pal?eozoic and now exist in the present, as a glance at the 

 accompan^'ing table will show: — 



RELATE]) I'AUXAS OF THE A^I ERICAS. 



Geologic Age. ■ South America North America. 



Mnllnscan and coral faunas Mnlluscan and coral faunas 

 nnrilnvard from the La Plata- southward from Cape 



Recent and 

 Quaternary 



Hatteras. 



Olicocene. Upper Olitcocene faunas of ITpperOligocene of Florida 



Cumana (Venezuela), Trini (Tampa silex bed and 

 dad and Jamaica. Chipola marlsL 



Lower Oliijocene faunas of San Lower Oligocene of Vicks- 

 Fernando and ^Manzanilla hur.a:, Mississippi. 

 Trinidad. 



Eocene. Lignitic fauna of Soldado Lignitic fauna of the Gulf 



Rock. States. 



Midway fauna of Soldado and Midway fauna of the Gulf 

 Pernamhuco. States. 



Cretaceous. Cretaceous faunas of Vene- Cretaceous of the South- 

 zuela and Colombia. Western LTnited States 



and Mexico. 



Carboniferous. Faunas of the Amazonian Val Coal Measures of the 

 ley in Brazil, Bolivia, and Western United States 

 Peru. - (More tlian half the spe- 



cies being identical). 



Devonian. Erere fauna of Brazil. 



Maecuru fauna of Brazil. 



Onondaga fauna of the 



United States. 

 Oriskany of Alabama. 



Brazilian and Venezuelan Silu Niagaran of the United 

 rian faunas (LTpper forma- States, 

 tion). 



Brazilian Silurian faunas Clinton and Richmond 

 (Lower formation). faunas of the United 



States. 



It appears as if, — just as the present moUuscan and coral 

 faunas of the (julf coast of the United States came originally 



