472 Evolution and Distribution of Fishes 



eastern Brazilian coast that now is, must have been an ex- 

 tensive area of land, that at least for some considerable 

 time stretched more or less continuously to the W. African 

 coast of to-day. This may even have included the Cape 

 Verde Islands as an area of volcanic activity on the north. 



Fig. 72. Chart showing probable distribution of land during 

 early Eocene time, outlined in black. The dotted lines indicate 

 possible river-systems whose course and extent might explain dis- 

 tribution of several large families of fishes. 



The above-named American rivers, passing into this 

 S. Atlantis continent, may have traversed areas which, 

 like the Congo, Niger, Amazon and other basins now, were 

 periodically swollen into extensive swamps and swamp- 

 lakes during each rainy season. Across the central part of 

 this Atlantis, most of which may have been only 1000 to 

 1500 feet above sea-level, connection could be made with 

 the waters of the Senegal on the east and the extended 

 Orinoco on the west. These with other rivers from east 

 and west probably discharged into a North Atlantic or a 

 South Atlantic ocean. Thus could be explained the gradual 

 passage or transition of the serranid, pseudochromid, latrid 

 and sparid groups from a freshwater to a marine life (pp. 

 387-392) in northward or southward direction. 



