164 BULLETIN : MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 
these must be added also a single tooth of a Cladodont shark from the 
Permo-Carboniferous of Blue Springs, Nebraska, which is made by 
Cope’ the type of his so-called Styptobasis knightiana. The Missourian 
fish-fauna of Kansas and Nebraska consists almost exclusively of Elas- 
mobranchs, and is directly successional to the Lower Coal Measure and 
Mississippian assemblages occurring throughout a wide area to the east- 
ward of these States, its relations with the Chester fauna of Kentucky, 
Illinois, and Missouri being not its least striking feature. 
During the last few years a considerable quantity of new material has 
been brought to light, chiefly through the activity of Prof. Edwin H. 
Barbour, Director of the Nebraska University Geological Survey, and 
his sister, Miss Carrie A. Barbour, of the State University at Lincoln. 
The writer owes it to the kindness of Dr. and Miss Barbour that all of 
the specimens collected by them have passed through his hands, and 
that a number of them are illustrated in the present paper. Acknowl- 
edgments are also due to Dr. S. W. Williston of Chicago University, 
and to Prof. W. C. Knight of Wyoming State University, for the gener- 
ous loan of material under their charge. Having these facilities at 
one’s command, it seems desirable to present a synopsis of the trans- 
Missourian fish-fauna which shall be as complete as the present state of 
our knowledge permits, and this is the endeavor of the following pages. 
The stratigraphy and palaeontology of the eastern parts of Kansas 
and Nebraska have been studied in great detail by a number of geol- 
ogists during the last few years with special reference to the question of 
the homotaxial relations of the so-called Permian beds. The discovery 
of supposed Permian fossils from this region was first reported by Swal- 
low in 1858, and in the spirited controversy which followed, Meek, 
Swallow, Hawn, Shumard, Hayden, Newberry, Marcou, Geinitz, and 
others participated, arguing either for or against the recognition of 
the Permian as a distinct epoch in North American geology. Later 
the subject was discussed by White and Broadhead to some extent, and 
more recently Prosser, Cragin, Cummins, Keyes, Tarr, Haworth, Knight, 
Darton, and Frech have made important contributions to the literature 
of the Permian question. 
It seems to have been established that there are from 1000 to 1350 
feet of fossiliferous sediments overlying the Upper Coal Measures (Mis- 
sourian series) of the Kansas-Nebraskan area, in which faunas succeed 
one another uninterruptedly from base to summit, as was first contended 
by Meek. The lower 400 feet (Neosho and Chase formations) con- 
1 Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., Vol. XIV., 1891, p. 447. 
