LOWER CRETACEOUS FORMATIONS AND FAUNAS 599 
far south as the Himalayas in India and almost to the tropics in 
Mexico. Besides, the fossil plants of both divisions of the Shasta, 
as well as those of the more northern Kootanie, indicate at least 
a warm temperate climate.t The facts seem to support Dr. Koss- 
mat’s? opinion that Neumayr exaggerated the influence of cli- 
mate on the distribution of ammonites [and other Mesozoic 
invertebrates as well], and that the climatic influence was of 
little importance when compared with geographic relations, the 
presence or absence of opportunities for free communica- 
tion, etc. Neumayr3 himself referred the California Creta- 
ceous to his Indo-Pacific region, and spoke of the persistent 
conservative character of the Mesozoic faunas of that region. 
The earliest Cretaceous deposits are apparently not preserved on 
the Asiatic side of the Pacific, but beginning with the Upper 
Cretaceous beds, usually classed as Cenomanian, on about the 
horizon of the uppermost Horsetown beds, very closely related 
faunas are widely distributed around the borders of the great 
Pacific basin. They occur in southern India, Japan, Saghalin, 
Queen Charlotte Islands, Vancouver, and, according to Stein- 
mann,+ on the west coast of Chile. While Lower Cretaceous 
deposits are not so widespread in that region, the character and 
distribution of their fauna down the west coast of North America 
seem to indicate that the Pacific was then the home of a uni- 
form fauna, and that it was directly connected with the boreal 
sea that covered Russia and Siberia, but was not in communica- 
tion with the Atlantic. This subject can be discussed more 
satisfactorily after reviewing the Cretaceous of the Texas region. 
The Comanche series.~-In area and in faunas the greatest 
development of the Lower Cretaceous in the United States is the 
Comanche series of the Texan region. Its outcrops extend from 
western Arkansas through southern Indian Territory to Denison 
and Preston, thence southward through Fort Worth, Austin, and 
™S1r J. W. Dawson, Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada, Vol. X, 1892, Sec. 4, pp. 81-82. 
2 Jahrb. der k. k. geol. Reichsanstalt, 1894, Bd. 44, p. 476. 
3Erdgeschichte, Bd. 2, p. 391, 1883. 
4 Neues Jahrb. f. Mineral., Geol. und Palaont., Beilage Bd. 10, 1895, pp. 1-118. 
