14 JAMES PERRIN SMITH 
there was an arm of the sea connecting the Indian Tethys with 
the southern Indian Ocean the distance would not be more than 
fourteen thousand miles. This geosyncline, or arm of the sea, did 
exist in Jurassic time, and it is probable that the occurrence of the 
Pacific-Asiatic fauna of the Meekoceras zone in Madagascar marks 
the birth of the Indian Ocean. 
The Meekoceras fauna of the Indian Archipelago.—Dr. J. Wanner’ 
has recently described the Meekoceras fauna of the Island of Timor 
in the Indian Archipelago, listing from there; Meekoceras, Fleming- 
ites, and Pseudosageceras multilobatum, with species all closely 
related to forms already known in India and in the Great Basin 
Sea, showing the existence of the Tethys during this epoch. 
The Meekoceras fauna in India and Siberia.—The Meekoceras 
fauna of India has long been known, but a recent work by Diener 
and von Krafft? has added greatly to our knowledge, and has made 
possible exact comparisons and correlations of faunas. In this 
monograph Diener and von Krafft bring out very clearly the inti- 
mate relations existing between the Indian, the Siberian, and the 
western American faunas of this zone. 
The Arctic Meekoceras faunas.—The Posidonomya beds of Spitz- 
bergen have long passed as Middle Triassic, but they contain several 
species almost identical with forms in the Meekoceras beds of Idaho. 
They were described as “‘Ceratites”’ but there can be no doubt that 
““Ceratites’”’ costatus belongs to Flemingites, and that “Ceratites” 
polaris and C. whitei belong to Meekoceras, very closely allied to M. 
mushbachanum, all typical of the Lower Triassic. This fauna must 
then be placed in the Brahmannic stage of the Lower Triassic. The 
only argument against this conclusion is the supposed occurrence in 
the Spitzbergen beds of a Mono phyllites of Middle Triassic character. 
But this species is almost identical with WM. sphaerophyllus, a group 
typical of the higher Muschelkalk beds of Bosnia, India, and Nevada, 
and the specimen probably came out of the Daonella beds of Spitz- 
bergen, which do contain an upper Muschelkalk fauna. Such a 
* Centralblatt fiir Min. Geol. und Pal. 1909, pp. 137-47; 1910, p. 730; Neues 
Jahrb. fiir Min. etc., 1911, Beilage Bd. No. XXXII, pp. 177-06. 
2 “Tower Triassic Cephalopoda from Spiti, Malla Johar, and Byans,” Pal. Indica., 
Ser. XV, Vol. VI, No. 1, 19090. 
