4 
FEBRUARY 15, 1917] 
NATURE 
481 
RECENT WORK IN PALAZONTOLOGY. 
Srven mew. genera of trilobites, Menomonia, 
Millardia, Dresbachia, Norwoodia, Saratogia, 
Vanuxemella, and MHanburia, are described in 
C. D. Walecott’s second paper on ‘‘Cambrian Trilo- 
bites”’ (Smithsonian Miscell. Coll., vol. Ixiv., No. 3, 
1916). e first four are placed in Beecher’s Proparia, 
and “establish the existence of a strong group of the 
order in Cambrian time.” : 
Part 3 of vol. Ixxi. of the Quarterly Journal of 
the Geological Society of London (September, 1916) 
contains evidence that the honours of research in 
Cambrian faunas are not to be left entirely to workers 
in North America. V. C. Illing (p. 386) describes a 
rich fauna of Middle Cambrian age from ninety feet 
of strata in the Stockingford Shales near Nuneaton. 
More than fifty distinct forms of trilobites are 
recorded. T. C. Nicholas, in ‘‘ Notes on the Trilobite 
Fauna of the Middle Cambrian of the St. Tudwal’s 
Peninsula (Carnarvonshire)” (p. 451), somewhat 
modestly regards his work as a supplement to the 
remarkable discoveries near Nuneaton. Prof. C. Lap- 
worth, who first recognised the Cambrian age of the 
beds near Nuneaton, has added some stimulating 
remarks in the discussion on both these papers. 
Prof. H. Douvillé, in describing the marine inver- 
tebrate fossils collected during the British expedition 
to Tibet (Mem. Geol. Surv. of India, Palzeontologia 
Indica, vol. v., Mem. 3, 1916), is able to revise the 
classification of the strata in this little-known district. 
interest centres in the passage-beds from the 
Cretaceous to the Eocene (p. 44), which are marked by 
gastropods of Danian and Cainozoic types side by side, 
while a Cretaceous type of nautilus occurs in Oper- 
culina limestones, and, with other fossils, is held to 
carry these beds down into the Danian stage. 
Little by little our knowledge of dinosaurs in 
South Africa spreads. In April, 1915 (Proc. Geol. Soc. 
S. Africa, vol. xviii., 1916, p. xxxiii), H. B. Maufe, 
director of the Geological Survey of Southern 
Rhodesia, communicated a report by S. H. Haughton 
on bones found twenty-five miles from Bulawayo. 
These came from the Forest Sandstone, and resemble 
Thecodontosaurus and Gyposaurus from the Cave 
Sandstone of the Cape Province and the Orange Free 
State. Mr. Maufe consequently regards the Forest 
Sandstone as of Stormberg age. A month later, 
A. W. Rogers read a paper on “The Occurrence of 
Dinosaurs in Bushmanland’’ (Trans. Roy. Soc. 
S. Africa, vol. v., 1915, p. 265). The remains were 
found in the ancient infilling of a valley cut in gneiss, 
and the author draws the interesting conclusion 
(p. 268) that the present valley was initiated in Mesozoic 
times, when the climate was wetter than at present, 
and that continuous infilling has since goneon. S.H. 
Haughton (ibid., p. 259) refers the bones and a tooth 
to a new genus, Kangnasaurus, intermediate between 
the Upper Jurassic Camptosaurus and the Upper Cre- 
taceous Mochlodon. It is thus probable that the allu- 
vial deposit is of Cretaceous age. 
E. L. Troxell describes two interesting birds’ eggs 
of Oligocene age from near Harrison, Nebraska 
(Journ. Washington Acad. Sci., vol. vi., 1916, p. 422). 
They are probably those of a water-fowl, and are now 
filled by calcite. In one case chalcedony has crept in 
at the narrow end, and a layer gf agate preceded the 
deposition of the calcite. In the other case a large 
central amber-coloured crystal of calcite, surrounded 
by white crystals of smaller grain, reproduces by a 
coincidence the colouring of the original contents. 
G. E. Pilgrim and G. de P. Cotter describe ‘‘ Some 
newly discovered Eocene Mammals from Burma” 
(Records Geol. Surv. of India, vol. xlvii., 1916, p. 42). 
NO. 2468, VoL. 98] 
SS Se EE EES ES ee a ae ee ee 
The remains are of special importance, as represent- 
ing the earliest known Asiatic mammals. The Yaw 
Clays and underlying Pondaung beds in which they 
are found probably ‘‘correspond with some part of 
the Upper Eocene.’ Ninety-five per cent. of the speci- 
mens from the Pondaung sandstones represent Anthra- 
cotheres. A Titanothere, Telmatherium (?) birmani- 
cum, n. sp., shows by its teeth an intermediate charac- 
ter between the Eocene and Oligocene members of the 
family. 
Clement Reid and J. Groves (Proc. Roy. Soc., B, 
vol. Ixxxix., 1916, p. 252) find that the remains of Chara- 
cez in the Purbeck limestones are partly silicified. 
This has enabled them to etch out certain interesting 
structures connected with the stem, including clusters 
of small club-shaped processes set on the ‘sheathing 
tubes”? of a new genus which they style Clavator. 
In addition to the photographs of specimens, which 
are faithfully given, a sketch would be welcome 
showing the author’s reconstruction of the plant in 
its habit as it lived. 
The investigation of the Mesozoic floras of Queens- 
‘and has been aided by the discovery of a Cretaceous 
marine fauna below plant-beds that were supposed to 
be Triassic (A. B: Walkom, ‘Flora of the Ipswich 
and Walloon Series,’ Queensland Geol. Survey, Pub- 
lication No. 252). It is possible that the two under- 
lying series dealt with in the present memoir may 
prove to be of Jurassic age. The equisetales of the 
Ipswich beds have affinities with ea Pie 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 
Campripce.—A Grace passed the Senate on 
February 10 approving the establishment of the new 
research degrees, Master of Letters and Master of 
Science. The object of these is to encourage students 
to remain in residence for one or two years after 
they have completed their work for the Tripos, and 
engage in research under competent direction. These 
new degrees are’ mainly intended for Cambridge 
graduates, but they will be open to properly accredited | 
students from other universities. The proposal to 
establish new research degrees has been under careful 
consideration by the University throughout the greater 
part of the duration of the war. A suggestion that a 
doctorate should be awarded to research students of 
the standing in question was reiected on the ground 
that the degrees of Litt.D. and Sc.D. were already in 
existence and demanded a much higher standard of 
attainments. 
The Senate also formally approved the proposal to 
found an Institute of Agricultural Mechanism in the 
University. The Board of Agriculture and Fisheries 
and the Development Commission have had under con- 
sideration the question of an institute for investigating 
problems relating to agricultural machinery, and they 
suggested that such an institute might be most suit- 
ably established at Cambridge in association with the 
schools of engineering and agriculture, financial sup- 
port being provided from the Development Fund. The 
proposal was cordially welcomed by the authorities 
concerned, and the Senate has authorised the appoint- 
ment, as soon as the necessary funds are available, 
of an engineer as director and an agriculturist. as 
assistant-director, the first duties of whom will. be to 
formulate a definite programme of work for the 
institute. 
Lreps.—In the twelfth annual report of the Uni- 
versity of Leeds, for the year 1915-16, attention is 
specially directed to the generous gifts of Sir James 
