REVIEWS. 



Correlations of the Post-Cretaceous Formations in the 

 Pacific Region. By T. Wayland Vaughan and others. 

 Reprinted from special publication of Bernice P. Bishop 

 Museum, No. 7, 1921. pp. 713-873. 



THIS publication, consisting of papers communicated to the 

 Pan-Pacific Scientific Conference in 1921, gives a summary of 

 the present state of knowledge of the stratigraphy and correlation 

 of the Tertiary deposits in and around the Pacific. The papers deal 

 with (1) New Zealand, (2) Australia, (3) Java, (4) Sumatra, Nias, 

 Borneo, Celebes, Timor, and Oceania, (5) the Philippines, (6) Japanese 

 Territory, (7) Alaska, (8) West coast of North America, (9) Central 

 America and the West Indies, (10) Western South America, (11) the 

 Basis of the correlation of Post-Cretaceous Formations of the Pacific 

 Region. 



In the more remote and isolated regions, such as Java, .A.ustralia, 

 and New Zealand, the difficulties of correlation are very great. In 

 the case of Java Dr. K. Martin says the faunas of the Tertiary 

 deposits are entirely different from those of Europe, and the Tertiary 

 palifcontology of India is still too incompletely known to afford any 

 basis for comparison. The percentage of living species in Java is 

 stated to be greater than in deposits of similar age in Europe ; this 

 is accounted for by the fact that in Tertiary times important climatic 

 changes occurred in extra-tropical regions ; while no such changes 

 took place in the Tropics ; accordingly there were fewer factors 

 which would modify the species, so that the transformation of faunas 

 was less rapid than in Europe, and consequently more species have 

 persisted to the present time. Similar remarks are made by W. D. 

 Warren on the Tertiary fossils of the Philippines. 



Along the west coast of North America a difficulty in correlation 

 is due to the existence of zoological provinces from south to north. 

 At the present day the marine molluscan faunas of Panama, Southern 

 California, and Alaska have practically nothing in common, and if 

 the V had J3elonged to a Middle Tertiary instead of the Recent epoch 

 it would have been very difficult to have established con- 

 temporaneity. In the Tertiary faunas of the west coast there is 

 similar evidence of temperature zones, which are perhaps indicated 

 even as far back as the Eocene, and in the Upper Oligocene a fairly 

 definite zonal arrangement is seen ; this becomes even more evident 

 in the Middle Miocene, as is shown by a comparison of the faunas 

 of this horizon in Southern California, Middle California, and Oregon 

 and Washington. The faunas obtained from the marine Pliocene 

 show still more clearly the effects of temperature differentiation 

 from south to north. Another difficulty in the correlation of the 

 Tertiary deposits of the west coast is due to the existence of numerous 

 partially isolated basins of deposition, with local environments and 

 corresponding local changes in the faunas. 



