[lambk] progress of VERTEBRATE PALiEONTOLOGY 18 



regarded as the most primitive example of vertebrate life known to us 

 in this country. 



Dr. A. Smith Woodward, in two papers published in the Geological 

 Magazine in 1892, adds much to our knowledge of the Devonian fishes of 

 Scaumenac bay and Campbellton, and Dr. K. H. Traquair has also 

 described new or little known forms from thesie same localities. 



In association with Professor H. F. Osborn, the writer in 1902 

 reported on the vertebrate fauna of the Belly River series of the North 

 West Territory, the publication taking the form of a joint memoir. 

 Professor Osborn, in a manner as disinterested as that of Professor 

 Cope, and equally laudable, devoted time, when under the pressure of 

 other work, to the consideration of the general geological and palseon- 

 tological relations of the fossils which the writer had the pleasure of 

 describing. This fauna includes fishes, a batrachian, reptiles and mam- 

 mals, the majority of which were new to science. 



After having glanced at the main facts relating to the results of 

 those who have contributed most to our knowdedge of the fossil 

 vertebrata of the Dominion, let us pass to a consideration of the faunas, 

 as they are known to us at present, of the diiferent geological horizons. 



1. Silurian fauna. — In rocks of Silurian age there are only two 

 representatives of the highest subkingdom, viz. : Cyathaspis acadica, an 

 Ostracoderm from New Brunswick, belonging to the order Hcterostraci, 

 which includes the simplest forms of the subclass, and Dendrodus, 

 arisaigensis, a crosisopterygian Teleostome from a slightly higher horizon 

 in Nova Scotia. The former is the only Silurian Pteraspid known from 

 Canada, a species of another genus, Palœasjjis elliptica, occurring in the 

 Upper Silurian of Pennsylvania. Dendrodus arisaigensis is based on 

 a well-preserved tooth, from the Upper Arisaig series (Lower Helder- 

 berg) at McDonald's brook, near Arisaig, N.S., collected by Mr. T. C. 

 Weston in 1869. 



2. Lower Devonian fauna. — Passing to the Lower Devonian, the 

 efforts of collectors have here been more liberally rewarded. Through 

 the writings of Lankester, Whiteaves, A. S. Woodward and Traquair, the 

 number of known species from these rocks is now greatly increased, in 

 comparison with the paucity of the recorded species from the Upper 

 Silurian, the majority of the forms coming from the celebrated beds 

 at Campbellton, N.B. Three species of Cephalaspids are notable, 

 Cephalaspis camphelUonensis. of which the cranial buckler, the only 

 part preserved, is of large size, C. dawsoni, from Gaspé, remarkable 

 in many ways, but especially in the great breadth of the head shield 

 as compared with the smallnesg of the trunk, and C. jexi, differing in 

 several particulars from both of the above species. Tn the class Pisces, 



