734 CHARLES SCHUCHERT 



The Brachiopod fauna, such as it is, resembles so closely that of the Hamilton 

 group of New York state as to leave no doubt that the beds in which it was found, 

 the sandstones and shales of Erere, represent about the same horizon as the Ham- 

 ilton group of North America. 



This view is repeated four years later (4 : 38). 

 Clarke (5:90), regarding this fauna, states: 



The middle Devonian composition of this fauna as determined originally 

 from a study of the brachiopods is decided. It may well be regarded, in this 

 respect alone, a miniature of the Hamilton fauna. The two trilobites Homalono- 

 tusOiara and Cryphaeus Paituna, Hartt and Rathl)un, all that are here known, 

 fortify this resemblance presented by the Pelecypoda and there is no lack of har- 

 mony on the part of the Gasteropoda and Pteropoda It is, with all its 



resemblance to the Hamilton, a more typical and better defined middle Devonian 

 fauna than that. 



The present writer does not now see wherein the Erere fauna is 

 "a miniature of the Hamilton fauna, "^ and while he would refer it 

 to a horizon about that of the Onondaga (Corniferous), he holds that 

 it has no close faunistic relationship with it. It will therefore be 

 well to examine more carefully into this conclusion of most students, 

 that the Erere horizon is that or about that of the Hamilton, to learn 

 on what it is based. 



The Erere fauna consists of 45 species, 35 of which are restricted 

 to the formation. Of the 45 species, 41 are found in the sandstones 

 and 4 are restricted to the black shales beneath the sandstone. The 

 10 species also found in the Maecuru formation are Dalnianella 



I In a former paper {American Geologist, September, 1903, p. 152) the writer 

 stated that "the southern portion of the Indiana basin also was open during Onon- 

 daga, Hamilton and Genesee time, establishing communication between the Mis- 

 sissippian sea and Brazil. Evidence of this is seen .... in the very similar faunas 

 of the Hamilton of the Mississippian sea and that of the Erere formation of the State 

 of Para." When this was written, too much reliance for correlation was given the 

 Erere species Tropidoleptus carinatus, Vitulina pustulosa, Orhiculoidea lodensis, 

 and Lingula spatulata. On the other hand, at that time Rhipidomella musculosa 

 and Anoplotheca flabellites were not known in the Maecuru, nor Tropidoleptus cari- 

 natus in the Maryland Oriskanian. 



The writer still holds to the above statement that "the southern portion of the 

 Indiana basin also was open during Onondaga, Hamilton and Genesee time," but 

 with this correction, that the Mississippian sea did not have open faunal communi- 

 cation with Brazil; nor did either area have connection with Tethys at this time, 

 because the Mississippian and Brazilian seas did not receive the Calceola nor the 

 Stringocephalus fauna so characteristic of this mediterranean. 



