98 DEUXIÈME ASSEMBLÉE GÉNÉRALE 
direct proof of the early existence of Edentates in North America has come 
to hand in the discovery of Dasypoda in the Middle Eocene (OsBorx!). 
Another observation which may prove to have very broad phylogenetic 
bearings is the evidence of arboreal ancestry in the structure of the feet 
of the Creodonta, Condylarthra and Amblypoda (Marrnew); it has not 
yet been ascertained whether this evidence is of the same nature as that 
which exists in the feet of the Marsupials (Huxzey, DozLo, Bexscey). With 
this exception attempts to bring these essentially archaic Placentals nea- 
rer to the Marsupials have not been successful?. The single direct Link 
with the higher Placentals which has even been alleged to occur in these 
beds is the supposed Viverravus of the Torrejon. The opinion has there- 
fore been expressed (Ossorx*) that these animals should be sharply sepa- 
rated from the higher placentals and placed in the Meseutheria. 
Among the unsolved problems in this Basal Eocene fauna is also its 
source, or ancestry, which has only in part been traced into the Creta- 
ceous fauna. We require fuller evidence as to the relationship with the 
Notostylops fauna of Patagonia (Ame@xiNo), also a positive demonstration 
that the Tæniodonta are really ancestral to the Edentata. In other words, 
the phylogenetic connections of these Basal Eocene Placentals of North 
America and Europe are circumseribed ; the sanguine view of Core that 
they contain the sources of the modern Placentals which first appear in 
the Lower Eocene has not been realized; none of these animals give us 
the stem forms of the true Carnivores, Perissodactyls or Artiodactyls of 
the Lower and Middle Eocene. 
Lower, Mipp1E AND UPPER EOCENE FAUNAS. 
The chief geological and faunal progress has been in the Bridger 
(Bartonien) and Uinta (Ligurien) stages, corresponding to the Middle 
and Upper Eocene, which have at last been clearly and sharply divided 
into two successive faunal stages for the Bridger (MArrHEw, GRANGER), 
and two successive faunal stages for the Uinta (PErErsoN, OsBorn). The 
importance of these divisions in the evolution of the Primates, Carnivo- 
res and Perissodactyls can hardly be over-estimated. 
At the same time the zoogeographical relationships of our Lower Eocene 
(Soissonien) have been extended by the discovery of a French Creodont 
(Palæonictis) in America and of an American Creodont (Pachyæna) in 
Ÿ An Armadillo from the Middle Eocene (Bridger) of North America. Bull. 
Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., Vol. xx, 1904, pp. 163-165. 
? Worrman. Studies of Eocene Mammalia in the Marsh Collection, Part I, 
Carnivora. Amer. Jour. Sci., Vols. xi-xiv, 1901, 1902. 
$ À Division of the Eutherian Mammals. Trans. N. Y. Acad. Sci. June 4, 1594, 
p. 234. 
