FOSSIL FIELDS OF MEXICO 177 



has now been prepared. Especially noteworthy is the Chinese spoonbill 

 sturgeon, Pscphurus f/ldd/u.s, now for the first time modeled. Of the Amer- 

 ican spoonbill, Pohjodoii spdfhuhi, which is rapidly being exterminated by the 

 caviare fishermen, a habitat group has recently Ix-en placed on view. It 

 represents a school of these large fishes swinging around into the seine of 

 the fisherman; another ganoid, the garpike, appears at the left poised high 

 in characteristic position, while below are catfish, carps, perches, herrings 

 and drumfish — giving a comprehensive picture of the fish life of the lower 

 Mississii)])i. This group is one of the results of the Dodge e\j)edition of 

 two years ago. 



A DISCOVERY IN THE FOSSIL FIELDS OF MEXICO 



Bi/ Bit ni urn Broirn 



THE state of Jalisco, Mexico, is traversefl north and south l)y low 

 ranges of mountains interrupted at intervals by short ri\ers that 

 flow into the Pacific. One of these, the Ameca, rises about fifteen 

 kilometers west of Guadalajara in a \alley at first open but shut in farther 

 on by low mountains. During Pleistocene times the outlet of this valley 

 was blocked long enough to allow a shallow lake to be formed in which 

 sediments collected and the remains of many animals ihen inhabiting the 

 country were preserved. These lake and river sediments now appear as 

 terraces of clay, gravel and volc.inic debris along the foothills. 



Searching the terraces for fossils in the winter of lOJO, I found remains 

 of several diflerent species of manunals, turtles and fishes, tlie most inter- 

 esting of all disco\eries being a complete carapace of a large glyptodont, 

 an animal related to the armadillos. Different genera of glyptodonts 

 existed during Miocene, Plioct-ne and Pleistocene times, ranging in distri- 

 bution front Patagonia to northern Texas, Florida and ("alifornia, and 

 were especially mimerous on the ))ampas of Argentina during the Pleisto- 

 cene. It is a curious coincidence that the range of distribution of this 

 order of animals covers the territory influenced by the Sjianish tongue 

 in the .Vmericas. 



The new specimen was found on the San ^Miguel ranch twelve miles west 

 of Ameca. As the Madero revolution was in progress at the time of the 

 discovery. 1 (h'd not as usual camp near the s])ot where the work was to 

 be done, considering it safer to sleep in the town with its little colony 



