454 Dr. C. W. Andrews — African Vertebrate Palceontology. 



I. — Ok the Importance of Afeica in Vertebratk Paleontology.^ 

 By C. W. Andrews, D.Sc, F.R.S. (British Museum, IS'atural 

 History). 



IT is a remarkable circumstance that Africa has long been admitted 

 to be one of the oldest land- areas in the world, portions of it 

 not having been submerged since the Permian period or even earlier. 

 The Keptilia from the Permian and Triassic beds of South Africa are 

 of exceptional interest and importance, because they not only include 

 forms which show relationships with the Amphibia, but also give 

 a clue to the manner in which the reptiles gave rise to the mammals. 

 The fact that the mammals originated from these reptiles may be 

 regarded as demonstrated; this is of particular importance, because, 

 if it can be certainly shown that the Mammalia really originated in 

 Africa, and if parts of that continent have been land since this took 

 place, then it is highly probable that somewhere or other there will 

 be found mammalian remains of various periods, linking up the 

 primitive Triassic or early Jurassic mammals with the modern types. 

 Unfortunately, so far, no Secondary mammalian remains have been 

 found. 



When we come to the Tertiary period the case is different, primitive 

 members of the orders Proboscidea, Hyracoidea, and Sirenia having 

 been discovered in the Middle and Upper Eocene beds of the Eayum 

 district of Egypt. These same beds have also yielded remains of 

 animals which show that the anthropoid apes and toothed whales 

 probably originated in the same region. Besides these there are 

 a number of remarkable forms which seem to have died out without 

 leaving any descendants in the fauna of to-day. One of these, 

 Arsinoitheriimi, was a huge hoofed animal carrying a pair of large 

 horns on the nose, and quite unlike anything known elsewhere. 



Up to this period Proboscidea are known only from Egypt, but 

 between the Upper Eocene and the Lower Miocene, the next horizon 

 at which they have been found, they had spread over much of the 

 world, having passed out of Africa along some land connexion with 

 Europe or Asia, which broke down the isolation of that part of 

 Africa in which they had originated ; the anthropoid apes, Hyraxes, 

 and other members of tlie same fauna, no doubt spread north with 

 them. In the lowest Miocene beds of Europe and India the 

 Proboscidea are represented by two distinct types. One, Tetrahelodon, 

 is really a Palteomastodon with its peculiarities exaggerated ; the 

 other form, Dinotheriuni, is very diff"erent and presents peculiarities 

 not found in any other of the elephants. In deposits of the same 

 age at Mogara, in Egypt, only Tetrahelodon occurs, nor was it known 

 till quite recently that Dinotherium had existed in any part of Africa. 

 Last year, however, Mr. C. W. Hobley sent to the British Museum 

 a fragment of a mandible with molars which undoubtedlj- belongs 

 to a small species of Dinotherimn, closely similar to Binotheriwn 



^ From the Journal of the East Africa and Uganda Natural History Society, 

 vol. ii. No. 4. (Abstract.) 



