NOVEMBEB 16, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



769 



the name Prosqualodon is. given because of the 

 resemblance of its teeth to those of Squalodon. 

 The same author has previously described 

 Argyrodelphis, so that this is the second primi- 

 tive cetacean from this region. 



LAEGE TURTLES FROM THE FORT PIERRE OP 

 SOUTH DAKOTA. 



G. K. WiELAND has recently given a full de- 

 scription (Amer. Jour. ScL, April, 1900) of his 

 genus Archelon which he proves to be related to, 

 but distinct from, Protostega. It comes from the 

 Fort Pierre of South Dakota, both the skull 

 and part of the skeleton being remarkably pre- 

 served. This great sea tortoise belongs to the 

 family Protostegidse Cope, but its relations to 

 the modern sea turtles or Chelonidse cannot yet 

 be positively ascertained. None the less this 

 family (Protostegidfe) is much nearer the Che- 

 lonidse than is the existing family, Dermo- 

 chelyidse, or modern leather-backed tortoises. 

 In other words, Wieland differs from Baur, who 

 placed the genus Spahrgis near the marine tur- 

 tles, and inclines to the view of Cope and Bou- 

 lenger that they belong in the separate division 

 Atheca. 



DINOTHERIUM GIGANTISSIMUM. 



(Anuarulu Museului De Geologia si de Paleon- 

 tologia * * * 1894, 1896.) 

 This memoir is accompanied by a very inter- 

 esting and complete history of Dinotherium and 

 of the remarkable theories which have been 

 entertained at various times as to the relation- 

 ships of this animal. Although the genus has 

 been known for half a century, there being 

 three species: Dinotherium cuvieri, characteristic 

 of the Lower Miocene ; Dinotherium bavaricum, 

 characteristic of the Upj)er Miocene, and Dino- 

 therium giganteum, characteristic of the Lower 

 Pliocene of Europe, little has been known of 

 these animals escept the skull, so that their rela- 

 tions to the other Proboscidia have been very ob. 

 scure. Professor Stefanescu, of Bucharest, has 

 recently described a species from the Pliocene, 

 which, as its name indicates, is much larger 

 than Dinotherium giganteum. The type is re- 

 markably preserved and shows that, wholly 

 unlike the elephant, this animal has a func- 

 tionally tridactyl pes, the first digit and prob- 

 ably the fifth being greatly reduced. The 



skeleton was exhumed in Roumania, near the 

 village of Mansati, between 1890 and 1894. 



FOSSIL CAMELS OF EUROPE. 



The same author has recently described a 

 fossil camel from Roumania, the first which 

 has been known in Europe ; previous remains 

 have been found in the Pliocene Siwalik beds 

 of India, in the Pleistocene of Algeria and in 

 the Pleistocene of Siberia, the latter teeth being 

 preserved in the Museum of Darmstadt, and 

 described by Bojanus in 1836 as Merycotherium 

 sibiricum; the fossil nature of these teeth is 

 somewhat in question. There can be no doubt 

 however about the discovery in Roumania be- 

 cause the bones were associated with those of 

 an Antelope and a Mammoth. After a most 

 careful comparison and description, M. Ste- 

 fanescu remarks that the animal probably emi 

 grated from Asia but did not find its way into 

 Europe until the Pleistocene ; this species there- 

 fore adds a very important new type to the 

 Pleistocene fauna of Europe. 



THE DEVONIAN LAMPREY AND THE CLASSIFI- 

 CATION OF THE PISHES. 



Part 1 of Vol. II. of the Memoirs of the New 

 York Academy of Sciences contains an impor- 

 tant study of Palieospondylus by Bashford Dean. 

 Since its discovery by Traquair in 1890 in the 

 Devonian of Scotland, this minute fossil has at- 

 tracted an amount of attention in inverse pro- 

 portion to its size. Traquair placed it with the 

 Cyclostomes ; Huxley, with the larval Coccost- 

 eans ; Gill, in a new sub-class, Cyclise. Dean 

 reviews the discussion and re-studies all the 

 material with great care, coming to the con- 

 clusion that the specimens hitherto found are 

 not adult : ' It is far more likely to prove, as 

 Huxley believed, a larval Arthrodire.' The 

 Arthrodira include the armored fishes Dinich- 

 thys and Cocoosteus, and the most striking as 

 well as the most permanent feature of Dean's 

 paper is a separation of these types into a new 

 distinct sub-class, Arthrognathi, distinguished 

 by the hinged condition of the jaws both at 

 their junction with the skull and with each 

 other. This is probably an important advance 

 in the classification of the fishes and it has al- 

 ready been accepted by Woodward and East- 

 man. Henry F. Osborn. 



