210 THE ECHINODERMS OF TORRES STRAIT. 
since it would be in large part a repetition of list 5. Probably many of the ancestral 
forms of what are now endemic species came in from the Pacific, and hence the 
influx from that region is at least indirectly responsible for these characteristically 
Australian species. That so large a number of endemic forms occur in the Torres 
Strait region and on the coast of eastern Australia might perhaps be construed as 
further evidence that the Pacific influx entered a virgin territory in which echino- 
derms were previously unknown and which hence gave particularly good oppor- 
tunities for speciation. 
3. The East Indian Influx: As is indicated by list 6, the opening of Torres 
Strait led to a migration of East Indian forms through the strait and down the east- 
ern coast of the continent. Comparison of list 6 with the tabulated list as a whole 
(p. 192) shows that there are many other species (for the most part included in lists 
1 to 4) which may have come to the Queensland coast via Torres Strait, but in 
regard to which the data are still too imperfect to enable us to determine the migra- 
tion route. On the other hand, as stated above (p. 207), it is not impossible that 
some of the forms on list 6 did not reach the Torres Strait region from the west, 
but from the east. Where the present range practically surrounds New Guinea, 
it is exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to determine the migration route. The 
following 10 species may be cited as typical of the East Indian influx, but the 
distance they have moved along the Queensland coast and their relative abundance 
there reveal great inequalities: 
Luidia forficifera. Pectinura arenosa. Salmacis virgulata. 
Ogmaster capella. Ophiochasma stellatum. Laganum laganum. 
Euryale aspera. Ophiura kinbergi. Holothuria coluber. 
Temnopleurus toreumaticus. 
SUMMARY. 
1. There are 240 species of echinoderms (with 1 subspecies and 1 variety) 
in the Torres Strait fauna, while 50 other species occur nearby and must be consid- 
ered in any analysis of that fauna. Many, perhaps all, of these 50 species will 
probably be found somewhere in the Torres Strait region, and there is little doubt 
that enough other species will also be found to bring the total for the region to 
over 300 forms. 
2. There is no evidence that any of this large fauna has come from the south. 
3. Hence there is no evidence, afforded by echinoderms, in support of the 
hypothesis of a Mesozoic Gulf of Queensland, having a characteristic marine fauna. 
If such a gulf existed, it apparently lacked echinoderms. 
4. Nearly 20 per cent of the Torres Strait fauna is, so far as our present 
knowledge goes, endemic. 
5. Of the 292 forms considered, 38 are so wide-ranging that their occurrence 
in the Torres Strait region seems to have little significance, but it is noteworthy 
that not a single one of these 38 forms occurs anywhere on the coast of Australia 
or in the Thursday Island region, unless it also occurs at the Murray Islands. 
6. There are 28 of the 292 forms regarding which our knowledge is too imperfect 
to permit their use in discussing questions of distribution. 
