768 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XII. No. 307. 



which in past time imitated other groups more 

 closely. 



PAREIASAURIANS OR THEEIODONTS IN NORTH- 

 ERN RUSSIA. 



A Russian naturalist, Amalitzky, has made 

 extremely important discoveries in northeastern 

 Russia of a Permian fauna which resembles in 

 part that of Scotland and of this country, but still 

 more closely that of the Permian or Perm-Trias 

 fauna of South Africa. In a recent paper before 

 the Society of Naturalists of St. Petersburg, Dec. 

 28, 1899, he reports the discovery of 39 groups 

 of bones in concretions, 5 of which are composed 

 of complete skeletons, with 5 others more or 

 less complete, and 10 large groups of scattered 

 bones. They include horned types similar to 

 Elginia of Scotland and Dicynodon of South 

 Africa. Although imbedded in a very diflBcult 

 matrix, probably the animals are in a remark- 

 able state of preservation and they will not only 

 add greatly to our knowledge of this important 

 fauna, which is ancestral to all the modern rep- 

 tiles, amphibians and mammals, but they actu- 

 ally aiford the most striking evidence of the 

 cosmopolitan distribution of land vertebrates 

 in Permian times. 



FOSSIL mammals FROM EGYPT. 



Africa is the dark continent of Vertebrate 

 Paleontology. With the exception of the 

 Permian fauna of the South, and the Pleisto- 

 cene fauna of the extreme North (which was 

 virtually a part of Europe), Africa is a blank, 

 although there is little doubt that a most im- 

 portant evolution of mammals was in process 

 there from the beginning of the Tertiary period. 

 It is therefore of great interest to record the 

 discovery, 100 miles nearly due west from Cairo, 

 of a species of Anthracothere to which the name 

 Brachyodus africanus is given by Mr. Andrews.* 

 The horizon is Lower Miocene and the beds are 

 alternating fluviatile, marine and lacustrine 

 deposits. 



EXTINCT BIRDS OF PATAGONIA. 



Wb are also indebted to Charles W. Andrews 

 {Trans. Zool. Soc, London, October, 1899) for a 

 very careful review of the fossil ratite birds of 

 Patagonia, remarkable for their great size and 



* Geol. Mag., Decade IV., Vol. VI., p. 481 f. 



their incomplete parallelism with the ratites of 

 other countries. These birds do not, like many 

 other fossils which have recently been discov- 

 ered in South America, add to the series of ani- 

 mals which connects this continent with Aus- 

 tralia and New Zealand. On the other hand, 

 they are, according to Mr. Andrews, entirely of 

 independent origin. In fact, he concludes : 

 "In the preceding pages only a few of the types 

 with which the fossils have been compared are 

 mentioned, they being the only types to which 

 any resemblance pointing to possible aflinities 

 could be made out. And even among these 

 there are some to which the similiarity is so 

 slight that they also might perhaps have been 

 omitted. For instance, in the case of Diomedea, 

 it is only in the structure of the palate and one 

 or two other points in the skull that any simi- 

 larity with Phororhacos can be detected, the 

 rest of the skeleton being strongly against any 

 such relationship. In fact, it seems to the 

 writer that the only groups that really come 

 into question are the Falconiformes and aber- 

 rant Gruiformes, Carima, Chunga, and to a less 

 degree Psophia." The general appearance of 

 the skull is like that of the Falcons, while the 

 general structure of the skeleton, particularly 

 of the pelvis and hind limbs is strongly in favor 

 of affinity with the storks and cranes. The 

 especial type studied, Phororhacos, stands in 

 somewhat the same relation to the Cariamidae 

 (Crested Screamer, Chunga) as such forms as 

 Glyptodon stand to the modern Armadillos. 



RELATION OF SOUTH AMERICAN AND AUSTRA- 

 LIAN MARSUPIALS. 



R. Lydbkker (Proc. Zool. Soc. , 1899, pp. 927), 

 while discussing the dental formula of marsupial 

 and placental carnivores, states as his opinion, 

 that the Prothylacinidse, of Patagonia, equiva- 

 lent to the Sparassodonta of Ameghino, are 

 undoubtedly marsupials and that they are not 

 very far removed from the Dasyures of Aus- 

 tralia, of which they may represent the ances- 

 tral type. Lydekker also recedes from his 

 former position that all the Mesozoic mammals 

 should be classed as marsupials in the strict 

 sense. 



He has recently described Ibid, p. 919 f. from 

 Chubut, Patagonia, a new Dolphin to which 



