SECRETARY'S REPORT 31 



director of the Oklahoma University Museum, regarding the location 

 of exposures of the Permian Hennessey formation that had previously 

 yielded skeletons of the large pelycosaur Cotylorhynchus. Although 

 five specimens of this unique reptile were located, only one incomplete 

 young individual merited the work involved in excavation. As a 

 result arrangements were made with the University Museum to obtain 

 a skeleton on an exchange basis. Dr. Dunkle's party then traveled to 

 Richard's Spur, Okla., where 11 bags of Permian bone-bearing matrix 

 were removed from solution fissures in Ordovician limestone. Arriv- 

 ing in Austin, Tex., on November 10, 1955, they were given an oppor- 

 tunity by Dr. John A. Wilson to examine the vertebrate fossil 

 collections at the University of Texas. Preliminary conversations 

 were held regarding some basis for exchange of materials. On Novem- 

 ber 15 and 16, 1955, a brief reconnaissance of the upper Cretaceous 

 beds of the Big Bend area, Texas, was made under the guidance of 

 David Jones, assistant superintendent of the Big Bend National Park, 

 with a view to evaluating the possibilities for procurement of dino- 

 saurs which will ultimately be needed for display. An exchange of 

 upper Devonian marine fossils between this Institution and the Cleve- 

 land Museum of Natural History was completed April 16-20, 1956, 

 by Dr. Dunkle. Skeletal materials representing a very large shark, 

 Cladoselache, and the arthrodire Dinichthys were selected and deliv- 

 ered to the Museum. 



Inasmuch as the Museum lacked a suitable representation of upper 

 Devonian fishes, Dr. Dunkle conducted fieldwork in the fresh-water 

 sediments exposed along the shores of Escuminac Bay at Maguasha, 

 Province of Quebec, Canada. These sediments yield well-preserved 

 specimens of lungfishes, fringed-fmned fishes, antiarch, and, less com- 

 monly, acanthodians, arthrodires, and palaeoniscoids, all of which are 

 important in any synoptic display in the exhibition hall. Prior to 

 commencing fieldwork, cooperative help had been obtained from the 

 National Museum of Canada, Ottawa, and the Royal Ontario Museum, 

 Toronto. While en route to Canada, Dr. Dunkle visited the Dartmouth 

 College Museum to make preliminary arrangements for an exchange 

 of upper Silurian ostracoderms. In Canada, consultations were held 

 with Dr. I. W. Jones, director, Quebec Geological Survey, and with 

 Abbe Laverdirere, chairman, Department of Geology, Laval Univer- 

 sity, Quebec City. On the return trip early Mississippian palaeonis- 

 coid fishes were sought at Albert Mines, as well as at the well-known 

 Devonian occurrences at Cambellton, both localities in New Bruns- 

 wick. This trip extended from May 21 to June 30, 1956. 

 • The Walcott bequest financed the trip to a locality near Burnet, 

 Tex., where Dr. David Nicol, associate curator of invertebrate paleon- 

 tology, and Robert J. Main, Jr., aide in that division, obtained fossil 



