1877.) 63 [Cope. 
CRICOTUS HETEROCLITUS Cope, Proceed. Acad. Phila. 1876, p. 405. 
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 
After an examination of the first fossils from this fauna which came under 
my observation, I left the question undecided as to whether its characters 
pointed to the Triassic or to Permian age. The Reptilia and a Ceratodus 
pointed tothe former ; the Diplodus pointed even to the coal measures. The 
additional evidence adduced in this paper, adds weight to both sides of the 
question. Of the fishes added, Ctenodus is a genus of the coal measures, 
and while Strigilina is new, its affinities are to the Petalodont genera of 
that formation. On the other hand the reptilian character of Clepsydrops 
is established, and the number of its species increased. Now the coal meas- 
ures have nowhere disclosed reptilian remains, so faras we have determina- 
tions of a reliable character ; Batrachia were the only type of air breathing 
vertebrata known to that epoch. The present fauna must then be placed 
above the coal measures, and the horizon will correspond more nearly with 
the Permian than with any other embraced in the system. 
From its most characteristic fossil, the bed might be called the Clepsy- 
drops shale. Its position, according to Dr. J. C. Winslow, is near the top 
of the Coal Measures, and it is marked No. 15, in Prof. F. H. Bradley’s 
section of the Coal Measures of Vermillion Co., in the Report of the Geo- 
logical Survey of Illinois by A. H. Worthen, Vol. IV, p. 245. It is about 
one hundred and eleven feet, averaging different localities, from the sum- 
mit of the series, and 20993 feet from the base. Two insignificant beds of 
coal occur above it, and the following genera of invertebrate fossils : 
Productus, Spirifer, Athyris, Terebratula, Hemipronites, Retzia, Zeacri- 
nus, Cyatharonio, Discina, Lingula, Cardiomorpha, Orthoceras and 
Nautilus. Several of these genera are found in the Zechstein, while others 
belong to the Coal Measures and below them. 
On some new and little known Reptiles and Fishes from the Austroriparian 
Region. 
By E. D. Cops. 
(Read before the American Philosophical Society, May 20, 1877. 
A number of interesting points in the distribution of our reptiles and 
fishes come to light from time to time, which serve to define with more 
precision the districts into which the Nearctic Realm is naturally di- 
vided.* The result of several of these, is to extend over the entire Austro- 
riparian Region the range of several species heretofore supposed to be con- 
fined to portions of that district only. A collection formed at Kinston in 
‘Eastern North Carolina, in the North-eastern portion of the region in ques- 
*See Bulletin No. 1 of the National Museum; Check List of North American 
Batrachia and Reptilia. 2 
