ON THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN 
PERMIAN REPTILES TO THOSE OF RUSSIA 
R. BROOM 
Springs, South Africa 
Professor Williston! has lately issued a paper entitled “ Primi- 
tive Reptiles: A Review” in which he sums up the present state 
of our knowledge of the American Permian reptiles. More briefly 
he discusses the Permian reptiles of Europe; and has some references 
to the South African types. Williston deals only with the lower 
Permian reptiles, and as we know only very few reptiles from the 
lower Permian rocks of South Africa the references to our African 
types are brief. As, however, possibly he or some other will later be 
discussing Permian reptiles in general, some new facts which I wish 
to state will probably be welcomed. Williston is inclined to regard 
our Karroo beds which contain Pareiasaurus as Upper Permian, 
since the Pareiasaurus beds of North Russia are undoubtedly 
Upper Permian. In this I think he is incorrect. 
In the Karroo we have a continuous series of shales and sand- 
stones from the Droyha conglomerate which we may regard as 
basal Permian up to the Molteno beds which we know to be Rhaetic. 
Thus we have the whole Permian and Triassic periods represented 
by about 9,500 feet of strata. The whole thickness we can sub- 
divide into zones as follows: 
Burghersdorpibedsnyay aeiiraen Sait tciaay yale teinenieye cogs aan 2,000 ft. 
Lystrosaurus and Procolophon zone. >... 22s). ....-..-- 2,000 ft. 
Castecephalus Zone ae vee ie see tee eee eer ere 1,000 ft. 
End oth vod on ZOmeys sie eels eae ce ence roan 1,000 ft. 
POLevaS@Urus-ZONe Pac eee en Soe heme eee eee eam 1,000 ft. 
Ecea: bed siiiiss sae ie aks edie can 20 Meats Cea neice oe ae 2,000 ft. 
Droyha: shales! s\Wae sine iets ys cls cual tor cenegs) aetnachoeven 500 ft. 
1S. W. Williston, ‘Primitive Reptiles: A Review,” Journal of Morphology, 
XXIII, No. 4, December, to12. = 
728 
