VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY MATTHEW 275 



the fringe-finned fishes have advanced our understanding of the 

 problem ; nor have any important new collections been made among 

 the earliest land vertebrate faunas of the Pennsylvanian period. 

 Moodie's monographic revision of the Coal Measures amphibia and 

 reptiles 2 affords a most valuable compendium of what is known up 

 to the present time. 



In the Permian faunas, both in Texas and South Africa, there has 

 been a great advance, both in collecting and research, continuing the 

 activity of the previous decade. Professor Case, 3 of Michigan Uni- 

 versity, and the late Doctor Williston, 4 at the University of Chicago, 

 have been the leaders in this country, and have secured and described 

 large collections from Texas and Oklahoma and greatly increased 

 our knowledge of this ancient vertebrate fauna. The Cope Permian 

 collections at the American Museum have been studied and com- 

 pared with the South African faunas by Case, Gregory, 5 Broom, 6 

 Watson, 7 and von Huene, 8 and important collections from the Texas 

 Permian have been obtained for the Tubingen and Munich museums 

 in Germany. There shall be noted, also, the fine skeleton of the fin- 

 back reptile Dimetrodon, recently mounted in the National Museum. 9 

 The South African Permian has also been vigorously exploited by 

 Broom, Watson, Haughton, 10 and Van Hoepen 11 and large collec- 

 tions made, including many finely preserved skulls and skeletons. 

 This fauna is of peculiar interest as containing apparently the be- 

 ginnings of the evolution of mammals, birds, and dinosaurs. It is 

 significant that it is regarded as the fauna of an arid or desert region, 



a R. L. Moodie (1916): The Coal Measures amphibia of North America. Carnegie 

 Inst. Pub. No. 238. 



8 E. C. Case (1907) : Revision of the Pelycosauria. Carnegie Inst. Pub. 55 ; 1910, 

 articles in Amer. Mus. Bull., vol. xxviii ; 1911, Revision of the Cotylosauria, Amphibia, 

 and Pisces of the Permian of North America. Carnegie Inst. Pub., nos. 145, 146 ; 1913, 

 Permocarboniferous vertebrates from New Mexico. Idem., no. 181 ; 1915, Permocarbon- 

 iferous Red Beds of North America, etc. Idem., no. 207 ; 1919, Environment of verte- 

 brate life in the late Paleozoic of North America. Idem., no. 283. 



* S. W. Williston (1911): American Permian vertebrates. Univ. Chicago Press; and 

 various articles, mostly in the Journal of Geology, 1908 to 1918. 



5 W. K. Gregory : Various articles in Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist, 1908 to 1922 ; 1913, 

 Journal of Morphology. 



«R. Broom (1908-1922): Numerous articles in Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., Proc. 

 Zool. Soc. London, Ann. South African Museum,, etc. 



7 D. M. S. Watson (1912-1922): Numerous articles in Ann. Mag., Nat. Hist., Proc. 

 Zool. Soc. London, Trans. Roy. Soc. London, Geol. Mag., etc. 



8 F. Von Huene (1922) : Osteologie des Dicynodon Schadels, Pal. Zeitsch., V, 58-71; 

 1913, Skull elements of Permian Tetrapoda, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. xxxii. 

 315-386 ; 1912-13, Anatomischer Anzeiger, 42 Bd., s. 98, 472 ; 43 Bd., s. 389, 519. 



°C W. Gilmore (1919): A mounted skeleton of Dimetrodon gigas. Proc. U. S. Nat. 

 Mus., vol. 56, pp. 525-539, pis. 70-73. 



10 S. H. Haughton (1915-1918): Ann. S. African Mus., vol. xil, containing descrip- 

 tions of the paleontological material of the S. African Museum and Geol. Surv. S. Africa ; 

 1919, Review of the reptilian fauna of the Karroo system of South Africa. Trans. Geol. 

 Soc. S. Afr., vol. xxii, pp. 1-26 ; 1920, On the genus Ictldopsis. Ann. Durb. Mus., vol. ii, 

 part v ; 1921, On the reptilian genera Euparkeria Broom and Meaosuchus Watson. Trans. 

 Roy. Soc. S. Afr., vol. x, pp. 81-88. 



11 Van Hoepen (1915) : Ann. Transvaal Mus., vol. v, nos. 1, 2. 



