836 



SCIENCE 



[N. s. Vol. XXVI. No. 676 



out, and found lying on this layer of limestone 

 where it projects from a rather steep bank at 

 the roadside. All of the other bones were 

 found imbedded in the clay about a foot above 

 the layer of limestone, and about ten feet from 

 the spot where the teeth were lying. All the 

 bones were at the same level, and were re- 

 covered from an area about three feet in length 

 and one foot in width. 



The bones are in a good state of preservation 

 and though somewhat brittle, are easily freed 

 from the rather soft clay matrix. Many of 

 the bones are fragmentary, apparently having 

 been broken before they were imbedded. Very 

 few of them are distorted, though the clay 

 which contains them is full of slickensides. 

 No other fossils have yet been found in this 

 bed. About twenty-five entire or fragmentary 

 bones have been found. The most complete 

 are an ilium, some ribs, and the pleuro-centra, 

 hypocentra, and neural arches of vertebrae of 

 the rachitomous type. All these appear to be- 

 long to amphibians, probably much like 

 Eryops, from the Permian of Texas. 



The reptilian remains consist of several 

 chevrons, and a fragment of a jaw containing 

 four small transversely elliptical, long-rooted 

 teeth. These are evidently from a reptile be- 

 longing to the family Diadectidae. 



Age of the Beds containing the Verteirates. 

 — The Ames Limestone is not a local stratum, 

 but can be " traced from Central West Vir- 

 ginia in Lewis County northward into Penn- 

 sylvania and continuously through Greene, 

 Westmoreland, Allegheny, and Beaver Coun- 

 ties into Ohio, whence it can be followed with- 

 out a break across that state to where it reen- 

 ters West Virginia near Huntington in Cabell 

 County, to disappear finally under water level 

 at the Kentucky line in Wayne County, eight 

 miles aboye the mouth of the Big Sandy 

 River " (West Virginia Geological Survey, 

 Vol. IL, p. 259). The red clay and shale be- 

 low the limestone seem to be coextensive with 

 it. There is therefore no doubt of the position 

 of the bed containing these fossils. 



All of these vertebrates have evident affini- 

 ties with Permian species, no reptiles having 

 been found in strata known to be older than 

 the Permian. Similar fossils have been found 



in beds on the border line between the Permian 

 and the Carboniferous on Prince Edward's 

 Island, and in Illinois, Kansas, New Mexico 

 and Arizona. The formations containing the 

 reptiles in those localities have been referred 

 to the Permo-Carboniferous (t. e., the base of 

 the Permian). 



The Conemaugh series of southwestern 

 Pennsylvania has always been considered as 

 Upper or true Carboniferous. Recently Dr. I. 

 0. White has suggested that the Monongahela 

 Series and that part of the Conemaugh Series 

 above the base of the Builalo Sandstone, 

 should be removed from the Carboniferous and 

 placed in the Permo-Carboniferous. He cites 

 in favor of this action a change in the fauna 

 and flora, and the introduction into the section 

 of " red-beds " above the base of the Buffalo 

 Sandstone (West Virginia Geological Survey, 

 Vol. IL, 1903). 



The discovery of reptiles in the Pittsburg 

 Red Shale, at a horizon about 150 feet above 

 the base of the beds ascribed by Dr. White to 

 the Permo-Carboniferous, presents an argu- 

 ment in favor of this suggestion. It should 

 be noted, however, that the remains so far 

 found indicate smaller and more simple ani- 

 mals than those ;found in the Permian of 

 Texas, and thus suggest their somewhat 

 greater antiquity. 



The evidence obtained from the invertebrate 

 fossils of the Conemaugh Series, so far as they 

 have been studied, is not of great value in the 

 correlation of these beds, for the fauna con- 

 sists mostly of long-lived species. 



No distinctly Permian fossil plants have yet 

 been found below the Dunkard Series, and the 

 preponderance of the evidence at the present 

 time seems to be in favor of regarding the 

 Conemaugh Series as Pennsylvanian. 



Percy E. Raymond 



Carnegie Museum, 

 November 19, 1907 



THE TDSKS AND SIZE OF THE NORTHERN 

 MAMMOTH 



The last report of the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion is accompanied, as has become customary, 

 by an " appendix " consisting of a selected 

 number of scientific papers of very general in- 



1 



