Branner : Geology of Alagoas, Brazil. 19 



Other Fossils from Alagoas. — -The occiirrcncc of Cretaceous fossils at 

 \'illa Xavo in the stale of Sergipe on the Rio S. P'rancisco below Penedo 

 leads to the inference that Cretaceous fossils should be expected on the 

 Alagoas side of the river. No systematic search has been made for fossils 

 in the southern part of Alagoas, so that it cannot be stated positively 

 whether the beds known at and about Maroim and Larangeiras in Sergipe 

 do, or do not, extend into Alagoas. 



The red Estancia sandstones on which the city of Penedo stands are 

 older than the Cretaceous, and as pointed out in the introduction to this 

 paper they have thus far failed to yield any recognizable fossils either in 

 Alag6as, Sergipe, or Bahia, where they are well developed. 



To the west of Penedo is another and older series of sandstone forming 

 the Serra de Maraba, but there again no fossils have yet been found. 

 The Mardba beds are older than the Estancia sandstones, and possibly 

 belong to the Carboniferous or to the Carboniferous and Devonian. In 

 the collections of the Instituto Archeologico e Geographico Alagoano in 

 Maceio I saw in 1899 a piece of sandstone labeled "Alagoas" which con- 

 tained fossil brachiopods that are not newer than the Carboniferous. 

 Unfortunately no information could be had in regard to the origin of 

 this specimen, and I am disposed to think that it is wrongly labeled. 

 It is not at all impossible that there may be Carboniferous sedimentary 

 rocks in the Serra de Maraba, but up to the present time they have not 

 been found. I have found at other ports on the coast of Brazil fossiliferous 

 rocks brought from other places and even from foreign countries as ballast 

 in ships. In addition to those mentioned above the only other fossils 

 thus far found in Alag6as have been the remains of large vertebrate animals 

 that have been discovered occasionally in digging pits in low grounds for 

 watering the cattle. Bones, teeth, etc., have occasionally been found at 

 several places in Alagoas and in the adjoining states. The places reported 

 in Alag6as are Meirus, about 15 kilometers northeast of Pao d'Assucar,4 

 and near a lake on the west side of the Pri^ca ridge about eight leagues 

 north-east of Penedo.^ 



Systematic search for the remains of these large extinct mammals in 

 the state of AlagSas would enable geologists to add a valuable chapter to 

 the later geologic history of life on the South American continent. 



Geographic Development. — Certain topographic features of the coast of 



■•J. C. Branner, "On the occurrence of fossil remains of mammals, etc.," Amer. 

 Jour. Set., XIII, 136, Feb., 1902. 



'Maria Graham, '■Journal of a voyage to Brazil," London, 1824, 130. 



