194 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXIX. No. 735- 



treille did so nearly a century ago (in 1825), 

 but almost all later Europeans have looked 

 with much disfavor on such a separation. It 

 must not be forgotten, either, that L. Agassiz, 

 over half a century ago (in 1857), also sepa- 

 rated the Selachians as a distinct class but, it 

 should be said, he also diSerentiated the 

 " Ganoids " as an equally distinct class.' It 

 is scarcely necessary to add that the reasons 

 for the present differentiation of the Sela- 

 chians are different from those influencing 

 the early zoologists. 



It may be hoped, in the interests of verte- 

 brate morphology, that the view that has at 

 last found favor among such active European 

 naturalists as those noticed will be more prev- 

 alent than heretofore. 



Theo. Gill 



SEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE 



AMERICAN SOCIETY OF VERTEBRATE 

 PALEONTOLO GISTS 



The seventh annual meeting was held in the 

 geological laboratory of Johns Hopkins Univer- 

 sity, Baltimore, Md., December 28-30, 1908. 



The meeting was called to order by President 

 K. S. Lull on Monday, December 28, at 2:30 p.m. 

 The minutes of the preceding meeting were read 

 and approved. The treasurer's report was read 

 and accepted. A letter from Professor W. B. Clarke 

 was read, giving notice of courtesies extended to 

 the society. A letter from the U. S. Fish Com- 

 mission was read, acknowledging receipt of resolu- 

 tion regarding extinction of the great marine 

 mammals, stating the sympathy of the commis- 

 sion with the views there expressed, and asking 

 for suggestions in regard to prevention of this 

 extermination. 



The president appointed Messrs. Williston, Case 

 and Matthew a committee to nominate officers for 

 the ensuing year. 



On motion it was resolved that the business 

 meeting be postponed until 10:30 a.m. on Wednes- 

 day and that the meeting proceed to the reading 

 of papers. 



The reading of the presidential address by R. S. 

 Lull, on " Dinosaur Societies," followed. The ad- 



' Agassiz, " Cont. to Nat. Hist. U. S.," I., 1857, 

 p. 187. Agassiz recognized three orders of Selach- 

 iann ( " Chimerse, Galeodes and Batides " ) and 

 six (?) orders of Ganoids ("three orders, Coela- 

 canths, Acipenseroids and Sauroids; and doubtful, 

 the Siluroids, Plectognaths and Lophobranches " ) . 



dress discussed the relationships and the geolog- 

 ical and geographical distribution of the several 

 groups of Dinosauria and suggested hypotheses 

 of phylogeny and migration to explain these facta 

 of distribution. (The address will be published 

 elsewhere. ) 



Discussion: Dr. Williston expressed his sense 

 of the importance and interest of the paper. He 

 did not agree with the author in making the early 

 Mesozoic migrations via a North Atlantic land' 

 bridge; a more probable alternative was by way 

 of southern land connections. In favor of this 

 view he pointed out our lack of knowledge of 

 southern Mesozoic land faunae, the easier com- 

 munication at that time between the southern 

 continents, and especially the presence of certain, 

 common types, such as Dicynodonts, in the early 

 Mesozoic land faunae of North America and Africa, 

 although they are not found in the intervening 

 northern land masses. He agreed with Professor 

 Lull as to the Triassie age of Nanosaurus. In 

 support of the lower Cretaceous age of a part of 

 the Morrison formation he cited the discovery of 

 Morosaurus, a Morrison genus, in the lower Cre- 

 taceous Trinity sandstone of Oklahoma. He be- 

 lieved that the American upper Cretaceous genera 

 PalcBoscincus (Judith River), Stegopelta (Lower 

 Benton) and Ankylosaurus (Hell Creek) were 

 closely related, if not identical, and were all de- 

 rivable from Polacanthus of the Wealden of 

 Europe. The recent discovery of Ceratopsia and 

 of Hadrosaurus in the European Cretaceous re- 

 duces still further the supposed isolation of our 

 late Cretaceous land fauna from that of Europe. 



The meeting then adjourned. The second ses- 

 sion was called to order at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday. 



A specimen from the Conemaugh beds of West 

 Virginia was submitted for discussion by Dr. 

 White. The specimen appears to be the tibia 

 or radius of a large reptile. Its nature and rela- 

 tionships were discussed especially by Drs. Willis- 

 ton, Case and Dean. It was considered to be 

 beyond doubt a bone or natural cast of a bone of 

 a large Pareiasaurian, exceeding in size and con- 

 siderably older geologically than any known mem- 

 ber of the order. On motion it was resolved that 

 the society expresses its sense of the importance 

 of the specimen and of the desirability of having 

 it fully described and illustrated. 



Dr. Williston then e.xhibited articulated skele- 

 tons of Pariotichus and Lysorophus, obtained for 

 the University of Chicago in western Texas last 

 summer. The reptiles of the American Permian 

 included four chief groups, the Pelycosaurs, the 

 Cotylosaurs (including Chelydrosauria) the Pari- 



