THE RELATIONS OF SOME CARBONIFEROUS FAUNAS ^ 



curred independently in New Mexico, where, as is well-known, 

 crinoid beds usually assigned to the Burlington, with an associ- 

 ated fauna reminiscent of the Osage, are found. But this con- 

 dition appears not to have invaded other western portions of the 

 Mississippian sea, where I believe, under uniform conditions, 

 the Kinderhook faunas persisted through Burlington and Keokuk 

 time without feeling, save in a subordinate degree, the influences 

 which helped to differentiate the early Mississippian faunas of 

 the Mississippi Valley. The Mississippian beds of the West 

 are almost invariably purely calcareous, showing a uniformity 

 of condition, which finds its reflex and expression in the nearly 

 uniform fauna that persisted, with slight and very gradual varia- 

 tion, from bottom to top of the series. 



In Ohio again, conditions were nearly uniform, and were at 

 least apparently unaffected by the profuse crinoid life, which, 

 whether as a partial expression or as a cause, helped to modify 

 Kinderhook life into its Burlington and Keokuk phases. Here 

 sedimentation comprised clay and mud, without any beds of lime 

 whatsoever. The Waverly rocks of Ohio are more varied, how- 

 ever, than the Madison limestone, being divided, as is well 

 known, into several formations, and the faunas too are appa- 

 rently more differentiated. Here also striking Burlington and 

 Keokuk features are not found, but the time of these 2 epochs 

 is probably represented by the upper part of the Waverly 

 group. 



In spite of what Hall, Herrick, and others have written, I 

 am quite satisfied of the Carboniferous age of the Waverly 

 group as a whole. This statement requires, however, some 

 qualification. The Waverly section as given by Prosser^ con- 

 sists of the following formations, from below upward : Bedford 

 shale, Berea grit, Sunbury shale, Cuyahoga formation, Black- 

 hand formation, and Logan group. The Cuyahoga shale itself 

 is capable of subdivision, as will shortly appear. Of all these 

 strata the only faunas at all well known are those of the Logan, 

 Blackhand, and upper Cuyahoga formations. The lower Cuy- 

 ahoga is scantily fossiliferous ; the Sunbury shale contains 

 little besides Lingiila and Orbiciiloidea; the Berea grit is almost 



ijour, Geol., vol. 9, No. 3, 1901, p. 215. 



