118 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLV. No. 1153 



mains. A new species, J7. clerci, is described 

 by him from the Artinsk beds. The reference 

 of this genus to the Cestraciont group of 

 sharks seems now fully warranted. Dr. A. S. 

 Woodward (Nature, Vol. 98, pp. 163-164) has 

 also discovered evidence which substantiates 

 the view that the segmented structures known 

 as Edestus form the symphysial series of the 

 dentition belonging to Campodus- or Orodus- 

 like sharks. 



Italian science suffered an irreparable loss 

 in the death last April of Professor Francesco 

 Bassani, of Naples. A fine tribute to his 

 memory, with a list of his numerous papers 

 on fossil fishes and other subjects, has re- 

 cently been published by his colleague Geremia 

 D'Erasmo, and another by G. de Lorenzo. 



Comparatively little has been added to our 

 knowledge of fossil fishes from ISTorth America 

 during the year. Dr. L. M. Lambe has de- 

 scribed a few ganoids from the strata of Lower 

 Triassic age near Banff, Alberta {Trans. Roy. 

 Soc. Canada, Vol. 10), and others from the 

 Coal Measures of Linton, Ohio, have been in- 

 vestigated by L. Hussakof (Bull. Amer. Mus. 

 Nat. Hist., Vol. 35). A report upon the col- 

 lection of fossil fishes contained in the U. S. 

 ISTational Museum has recently been published 

 by C. E. Eastman (Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 

 Vol. 52). It includes descriptions of a num- 

 ber of new species. 



An indispensable reference work which 

 brings together the titles of all publications on 

 the subject of fishes, living and fossil, includ- 

 ing their anatomy, physiology, embryology and 

 systematic relationships, is the newly pub- 

 lished Bibliography of Fishes, by Dr. Bashford 

 Dean. The collection of the titles for the 

 authors' volume of this work is the result of 

 twenty-five years' unremitting labor. [C. R. E.] 



Amphibians and Reptiles. — Dr. E. S. 

 Hoodie's important monograph^ on the Coal 

 Measures Amphibia of North America ade- 

 quately summarizes and illustrates the numer- 

 ous and highly varied types of the oldest well- 

 known land-living vertebrates, which are first 

 foreshadowed by a single footprint from the 

 Upper Devonian of Pennsylvania. The am- 



1 Carnegie Inst., Washington, 1916, Pub. No. 238. 



phibians of the Carboniferous age were mostly 

 swamp-living forms embracing small newt-like 

 and serpentiform types; there were also larger 

 animals related to the Labyrinthodonts of suc- 

 ceeding ages. 



The amphibians and reptiles of the "Eed 

 Beds " of Texas, New Mexico and elsewhere 

 are very fully discussed in a monograph by 

 Professor E. C. Case.- After describing the 

 geography and environments of Permo-Car- 

 boniferous times the author gives an extended 

 analysis of the fauna, in which he discusses 

 the food supply and food habits, as well as the 

 terrestrial and aquatic adaptations, of these 

 animals. A majority of the forms were partly 

 aquatic and more or less raptorial and carniv- 

 orous, but some fed upon insects, others upon 

 mollusks, and others to some extent upon 

 plants. The author discusses the conflict be- 

 tween the defensively and offensively armed 

 types and shows that many of the amphibians 

 and reptiles were so overspecialized that they 

 became extinct at the end of this period. Two 

 of the reptilian families and one type of am- 

 phibians developed excessively long spines on 

 the back which the author believes to have 

 been useless to these animals. He suggests 

 that owing to the abundance of the food supply 

 and to the perfection of the weapons of offense, 

 the surplus vitality thus generated was used 

 in the continued elaboration of certain struc- 

 tures, which were possibly useful in their in- 

 ception, but finally became elements of weak- 

 ness, and led to the extinction of the group. 

 The monograph is accompanied by many 

 restorations of these animals, by full faunal 

 lists and by a welcome discussion of the classi- 

 fication. 



Professor S. W. Williston also continues his 

 investigations of American Permian verte- 

 brates.^ He gives first a full description of 

 the skull of Pantylus, a cotylosaurian reptile 

 which retains a very primitive skull-pattern, 

 and secondly an invaluable and well-illustrated 

 synopsis of the whole fauna of Permian 

 amphibians and reptiles. These forms con- 



2 Carnegie Inst., Washington, 1915, Pub. No. 207. 



3 Contr. Walker Museum, Vol. 1, No. 9, pp. 165- 

 236. Chicago, 1916. 



