18 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [OCT. 20, 



five feet. The posterior part of the skeleton was quite Avell 

 preserved. 



During a discussion whicli ensued, the following remarks were 

 made by President Newberry. 



ON THE AMERICAN TRIAS. 



The Trias of all the eastern half of the continent represents 

 only tlie uppermost portion of the series, the equivalent of the 

 Rhffitic beds of Germany. The Muschelkalk and the Bnnter are 

 wanting. This is clearly shown by the fossil plants obtained by 

 Emmons and Fontaine from the Trias of North Carolina and 

 Virginia, and by the speaker from New Jersey and Connecticut. 

 The former have recently been described in one of tiie Mono- 

 graphs of the U. S. Geological Survey. No descriptions of the 

 latter have yet been published; but they consist chiefly of Cycads 

 and Ferns, of which the two most common are Otozamites latior, 

 Saporta, the Rhaetic form of 0. hrevifolkiin; and a Clathropteris 

 which is scarcely distinguishable from C. flatypliylla, which is 

 common to the Rhgetic and Lias. 



The fishes so abundant in our Trias, lachypterus and Catoi^te- 

 rus, have never been found in the old world, and therefore throw 

 no light on the question. But their aflSnities are more with the 

 Mesozoic fishes (Jurassic and Cretaceous) than with Palwoniscus, 

 etc., of the Permian. Much rarer fishes have been recently ob- 

 tained by the speaker from the Connecticut Trias — Dipldurus 

 and Ptiicliolepis — which, though new, represent groups confined 

 to the Jura of the old world. 



Dr. White has obtained fossils from Idaho which apparently 

 represent the Muschelkalk. And possibly some of the Trias of 

 Nevada and California may represent the Bunter. But up to the 

 jiresent time no distinctly marked Bunter fossils have been found 

 on this continent. The Ammonites and other mollusks of Hum- 

 boldt County, Nevada, and the fossil plants of Abiquiu, New 

 Mexico, and Los Bronces, Sonora, arc all upper Triassic. 



As the Permian proper of northern Europe, represented by the 

 Zechstein and '' Copper Schists," has not yet been found in 

 America, it is evident that a considerable hiatus exists in our 

 geological history between the upper Carboniferous and the uj)- 



