100 



ENVIRONMENT OF VERTEBRATE LIFE, ETC. 



QUADAL.UPE 

 MTS. 



STAKED 

 PLAINS 



PANHAT4DLE- 

 K.AN&AS 



continuation of those to the east, and maintains that the conditions which 

 determined this change separated the fauna of Capitan limestone from that 

 of the Quartermaster (Whitehorse) of Texas and Oklahoma. He says : 



"If the conclusions reached above are correct, it leads at once to the correla- 

 tion of the Kansas and Guadalupian sections. If we use the Whitehorse sand- 

 stone, probably the equivalent of the beds in contact with the Guadalupian 

 limestone near Carlsbad, as a common basis of correlation of the two sections, 

 we attain the result shown in the accompanying dia- 

 gram. [Fig. 2.] Disregarding their actual faunal 

 relationships and comparing them as to their thick- 

 ness, the strata of the two sections compare as fol- 

 lows, the figures of the Guadalupian rocks being 

 approximations : 



"In southern New Mexico we have some 4,500 

 feet of the Guadalupian series, composed of 2,100 

 feet of Capitan and overlying limestones, and 2,400 

 feet of the Delaware Mountain formation, composed 

 of limestones and sandstones overlying 5,000 feet 

 of Hueco limestones. Beginning at the same horizon 

 in Kansas, we have the remainder of the Red Beds, 

 the lighter Permian and the Pennsylvanian, aggre- 

 gating about 4,500 feet of strata, composed of lime- 

 stone shales and sandstone. So far as mere thick- 

 ness is concerned, it leaves the base of the Delaware 

 Mountain formation about on the level with the 

 Cherokee shales (as exhibited in Kansas). The 

 horizon of the base of the Delaware Mountain for- 

 mation in the Kansas section, interpreted upon its 

 fauna, or actual time equivalency, may be a very 

 different matter. The base of the Capitan falls 

 near the bottom of the Elmdale formation strati- 

 graphically, which is probably not far from its cor- 

 rect faunal correlation as well. The paleontological 

 comparisons are yet to be worked out. The unconformity above the Capitan 

 limestone, and locally even in the Delaware Mountain formation, the Capitan 

 having been carried away, is not taken into account in making these comparisons. 

 It is probable that it diminishes rapidly to the northward, where it is of less 

 consequence. 



"One of the most interesting features of the Guadalupian fauna is its isolation. 

 As has been stated by Girty, the fauna is a unique one, and, as a unit, is now 

 known from no other part of the western hemisphere. At first thought it seems 

 peculiar that more of its members were not distributed over the adjacent regions 

 where contemporaneous strata occur. Their absence in such rocks has been a 

 serious difficulty in any attempt to correlate them with other American faunas. 



"In the first place, the lower red beds lying to the eastward, with which the 

 Guadalupian limestones are probably contemporaneous, are believed by some 

 to be to a considerable extent of subaerial origin, while the temporary seas that 

 occupied portions of it from time to time were too concentrated in salt content 

 for normal marine faunas. So far as my collecting in the typical Capitan limestone 



FIG. 2. Diagram from Beede, 

 showing his idea of the rela- 

 tions of the beds in the Gua- 

 dalupe Mountains to those 

 in Texas and Kansas. 



