128 



WATER REPTILES OF THE PAST AND PRESENT 



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Africa, across the broad Atlantic 

 Ocean, so long ago. The geolo- 

 gists tell us that the Atlantic 

 and Pacific, in the main, have 

 always been oceans since the 

 beginning of terrestrial life upon 

 the earth. Possibly the tribe of 

 proganosaurs migrated by the 

 very circuitous route of Europe 

 and North America, or Asia and 

 the Northwest; but that is very 

 improbable, since nothing what- 

 ever resembling them has ever 

 been found in the Northern 

 Hemisphere, and it is quite 

 certain that in the many thou- 

 sands of years it must have 

 taken them to travel from 

 southern Africa to South 

 America many of the reptiles 

 must have perished on the way 

 and left their remains in the 

 rocks. The only conclusion 

 that seems probable is that 

 there was a direct land commu- 

 nication in those olden times 

 between Africa, or at least 

 India, and South America across 

 what is now the Atlantic Ocean. 

 Of course this route will be 

 very difficult to prove, since we 

 can never get to the bottom 

 of the ocean to hunt for 

 fossil proganosaurs. Were this 

 peculiar distribution of the 

 proganosaurs an isolated 

 example, one might perhaps 



