48 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1964 



Associate curator of invertebrate paleontology Erie G. Kauffman 

 and museum technician G. R. Paulson were in northern New Mexico 

 at the beginning of the fiscal year, measuring sections and collecting 

 mollusks from typically early Upper Cretaceous rocks. Shortly there- 

 after they extended the work into Colorado until the end of July. 

 Approximately 4,000 specimens were obtained from 21 stratigraphic 

 sections measured and collected. The data will permit revision of the 

 Coloradoan stratigraphy in many areas of northern New Mexico and 

 central Colorado, formation of a refined faimal zonation throughout 

 the region, and precise correlation of the sequence across the Front 

 Range of the Rocky Mountains. 



Dr. Kauffman, accompanied by Dr. N. F. Sohl of the U.S. Geologi- 

 cal Survey, spent the last half of March in Puerto Rico studying the 

 Cretaceous biostratigraphy of the island and collecting invertebrate 

 fossils. All major Cretaceous localities in southwest Puerto Rico, and 

 along the central cordillera, were visited during the course of the work. 

 Approximately 21/2 tons of fossil material were collected, predomi- 

 nantly limestone blocks containing silicified mollusks, corals, sponges, 

 and other invertebrates. These collections, added to those obtained 

 previously by Survey personnel, form the largest and most diverse as- 

 semblage of invertebrate fossils from the Caribbean Cretaceous. 



Dr. Martin A. Buzas, who joined the staff late last year as associate 

 curator of invertebrate paleontology, completed manuscripts on the 

 Foraminif era from a late Pleistocene clay near Waterf ord, Maine, and 

 a distributional study of the species of Foraminifera in Long Island 

 Sound. 



Dr. C. L. Gazin, curator of vertebrate paleontology, accompanied 

 by Franklin L. Pearce, chief of the laboratory of vertebrate paleontol- 

 ogy, began exploration of the Middle Eocene Bridger formation of 

 southwestern Wyoming at the beginning of the fiscal year. Unfortu- 

 nately, at the end of the first week Mr. Pearce became ill and had to 

 return to Washington for hospitalization. Dr. Gazin continued alone 

 until early August. He devoted much time to a careful search for 

 smaller mammals in the upper part of the formation, as exposed in the 

 upper basin of Sage Creek, with some attention to the lower levels in 

 the Grizzly Buttes and to the north of Cedar Mountain. He also 

 made occasional profitable trips to localities of earlier years in the 

 Paleocene and Early Eocene of adjacent basins. At the close of the 

 year Dr. Gazin and Mr. Pearce were engaged in another field trip to 

 New Mexico and Wyoming. 



Dr. Gazin completed his morphologic study of the Early Eocene 

 condylarthran mammal Mimcotheriv/ni. This includes a detailed 

 review of nearly the entire skeleton, which is compared with that 

 of other condylarths, of which Hyopsodua provides much new 

 information. 



