CUBA. 225 



America than do any of the other islands. A few years ago it would have been 

 considered unreasonable to assert that Cuba had been long and intimately re- 

 lated to Central America, and had certainly been for a shorter time connected 

 with Florida or with the island which has since formed the region where Florida 

 is now. Only in 1902 did Vaughan (Science, January 24, 1902, 15, p. 148-149) 

 question the occurrence of remains of the fossil sloth Megalocnus in Cuba, even 

 after the Cuban zoologist, Dr. de la Torre had published his Observaciones geo- 

 logicas y paleontologicas en la region central de la Isla [de Cuba]. In this paper 

 the author recorded the finding of specimens at Cardenas, Sagua, and Santo 

 Domingo, in addition to the type, which came from the now classic locality, 

 Banos del Ciego Montero. Vaughan added, "I am not able to express an opinion 

 as to the correctness of these localities or in Torre's ability to determine fossil 

 vertebrates. I am inclined to doubt because there has been so much error re- 

 garding those fossils concerning which we have subsequently been able to procure 

 definite data." As is now known, Dr. de la Torre has not only discovered well 

 preserved remains of many individuals of Megalocnus; but he has uncovered 

 besides the remains of a great fauna of rodents, edentates, and other mammals, 

 as well as of tortoises and crocodiles. I have had the privilege of examining 

 his collection in Havana; and de la Torre's final accounts of his discoveries 

 will be awaited with the greatest interest. Suffice it to say that, stimulated by 

 Vaughan's remarks, he has vindicated his previous statements with splendid 

 success. 



These finds, of course, prove Cuba's intimate relationship with the main- 

 land; had they never been made, however, the proof offered by the existing 

 genera of reptiles is equally convincing. In Florida Liodytes alleni has a nearest 

 ally and possible progenitor in the Cuban species of Tretanorhinus. This genus 

 occurs upon no other of the West Indies. In Florida, Rhineura, the only repre- 

 sentative of the Amphisbaenidae in the United States, has possibly been derived 

 from the ancestors of one of the two Cuban species of Amphisbaena. Although 

 the genus Rhineura itself is an ancient one being known from the Miocene of 

 South Dakota (if?, hatcheri Baur). The occurrence in Cuba of Phyllobates, which 

 is found upon no other island is very noteworthy. Tarantola cubana Gundlach 

 & Peters represents a genus occurring in the Mediterranean region of the Old 

 World, and affords an interesting parallel to the occurrence of Spelerpes and 

 Hyla pulchrilineata Cope in Haiti. As yet, no urodele has been discovered in 

 Cuba; and the allies of the Hyla mentioned are found in Mexico, the south- 

 eastern United States, and in the Old World, conspicuous among them being 

 Hyla andersonii Baird, Hyla eximia Baird, and Hyla arborea Linne. 



