Dr. A. S. Woodtcard's Presidential Address. 419 



determining exactly the origin of the mammals. For a long time 

 after the discovery of the Anomodont or Theromorph reptiles in the 

 Permian-Trias of South Africa, it seemed more and more probable 

 that the mammals arose in that region. Even yet new reptiles from 

 the Karroo formation are continually being described as making an 

 astonishingly near approach to mammals ; and, so far as the skeleton is 

 concerned, the links between the two grades are now very numerous 

 among South African fossils. Since these reptiles first attracted 

 attention, however, they have gradually been found in the Permian 

 and Trias of a large part of the world. Remains of them were first 

 met with in India, then in North America, and next in Scotland, 

 while during the last few years Professor W. Amalitzky has disinterred 

 so many nearly complete skeletons in the north of Russia that we are 

 likely soon to learn more about them from this European country than 

 from the South African area itself. Quite lately I have received 

 numerous bones from a red marl in Pio Grande do Sul, Southern. 

 Brazil, which show that not merely Anomodonts but also other 

 characteristic Triassic land reptiles were likewise abundant in that 

 region. We are therefore now embarrassed by the richness of the 

 sources whence we may obtain the ancestors of mammals. 



The mystery of the origin of the marine mammals of the order 

 Sirenia and Cetacea appears to have been diminished by the discoveries 

 of the Geological Survey of Egypt, and by those of Dr. Andrews and 

 Dr. Fraas in the Eocene and Oiigocene deposits of the Mokattam Hills 

 and in the Fayum. It is now clear that the Sirenians are closely 

 related to the small primitive ancestors of the elephants; while, so 

 far as the skull and dentition are concerned, we know nearly all the 

 links between the early toothed whales (or Zeuglodonts) and the 

 primitive ancestors of the Garni vora (or Creodonts). The most 

 primitive form of Siren ian skull hitherto discovered, however, is not 

 from Egypt, but from the other side of the world, Jamaica ; and 

 exactly the same Zeuglodonts, even with an associated sea-snake, 

 occur so far away from Egypt as Alabama, U.S.A. The problem 

 of the precise origin of these marine mammals is therefore not so 

 simple as it would have appeared to be had we known only the 

 Egyptian fossils. The progress of discovery, while revealing many 

 most important generalities, has made it impossible to vouch for 

 the accuracy of the details in any ' genealogical tree '. 



•A- * * * * * * 



It would be easy to multiply instances, but I think I have now said 

 enough to show that every advance in the study of fossils reveals more 

 problems than it solves. During the last two decades the progress 

 in our knowledge of the extinct backboned animals has been truly 

 astonishing, thanks especially to the great explorations in North 

 America, Patagonia, Egypt, Madagascar, and South Africa. Whole 

 groups have been traced a long way towards their origin ; but with 

 them have been found a number of previously unknown groups which, 

 complicate all questions of evolution to an almost bewildering extent. 

 Animals formerly known only by fragments are now represented 



