Section IV., 1894. [ 71 ] Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada. 



V. — Si/nopsis of the Air-hreathing Animals of the Palœozoic in Canada, up to 1894. 

 By Sir William Dawson, G.M.G., LL.D., F.R.S. 



(Read May 23rd, 1894.) 



Our knowledge of the animal inhabitants of the land in Palœozoic time is very meagre 

 in comparison with what is known of marine creatures. There was probably less land in 

 early Palaeozoic ages than later. Atmospheric conditions may have been less favourable to 

 breathers in air. Life on the land requires a higher nervous and muscular system than those 

 necessarj' in water, and diflerent means of respiration. If, therefore, as seems probable, 

 animal life originated in the waters, it may have required a long time before, in the great 

 creative plan, these higher and more complex structures took their origin ; and the intro- 

 duction of the more elevated forms of land life may have been a slow and gradual process. 



It is also to be observed that, as the greater part of our fossiliferous deposits are of 

 aqueous origin, the chances of preservation of aquatic organisms are much greater than are 

 those of terrestrial species. 



These causes are alone sulRcient to account for the paucity of fossil remains of land 

 animals in the older rocks. But besides this, their rarity and their occurrence in special 

 and exceptional places, make them less likely to attract the attention x>1i collectors. We are 

 apt to find what we expect, less likely to find what we do not expect or think very unlikel}^ 

 to occur. This last circumstance is pcrliaps connected with the fact that when a single 

 species of a new type is discovered in a particular locality, it is likely to be followed by other 

 discoveries elsewhere. 



It is of interest to us, that in several of these discoveries, the Eastern Provinces of Canada 

 have taken a leading part. The finding of Batrachian footprints by Logan at Horton Bluft 

 in 1841, was the first indication of the existence of air-breathing vertebrates in the Carbon- 

 iferous rocks.' The fact was published in 1842, and in 1844 Dr. King announced the 

 discovery of footprints in the Carboniferous of Pennsylvania, and Von Decken the finding of 

 skeletons of Batrachians in the coalfield of Saarbruck The first discovery of the osseous 

 remains of any Palaeozoic land vertebrate in America was that of Baphetes planiceps, found 

 by the author in the Pictou coalfield in 1850.^ 



The first announcement of insects in the Devonian (Brian) was that by Ilartt of the 

 finding of four species of insect wings in the "Fern Ledges" of the Little River group at 

 St. John, New Brunswick, in 1862.' Insects had previously been found in tlic ("arlioniferous 

 of Europe, and have since been traced back to the Silurian. 



' Proceedings Geol. Society of London, 1842. 



'Not published till 1855. Owen, Journal Geol. Society of London, Vol. X., p. 20". 



' Canadian Naturalist, N.&., IIL, 205, 1867. 



