June 12, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



921 



nicality, others have a wider range and engage 

 popular attention. 



The very enviable fame enjoyed by the 

 American Museum for its unsurpassed halls 

 of vertebrate paleontology suggests the pre- 

 cedence of the papers on this topic; indeed, 

 by enumeration, over one third of the titles 

 belong here. 



The first paper is by Dr. L. Hussakof: a 

 short description of the fossil surgeon fish, 

 Zebrasoma deani n. sp., from the West Indies, 

 and significant as the first instance of a fossil 

 of the family being found in America. It is 

 hypothetically referred to the Eocene. The 

 second paper is by Dr. W. D. Matthew, de- 

 voted to the elaboration of a lower Miocene 

 fauna from South Dakota, which, it is con- 

 tended, connects the latest of the White River 

 beds (Oligocene) with the Loup Fork sedi- 

 ments (upper Miocene) and which is char- 

 acterized by two rather sharply contrasted 

 faunas, that of the lower Rosebud beds and 

 that of the upper, in both of which are found 

 Carnivora, Rodentia, Perisso and Artiodactyles 

 and (in the upper Rosebud) Insectivora, and 

 of which finally the author says : " It is pecu- 

 liarly satisfactory therefore to find a fauna 

 which is intermediate between two stages hith- 

 erto disconnected, and enables us to perceive 

 the exact relationships between genera which 

 could until now be connected only in a gen- 

 eral or provisional way." The details given 

 in this paper are very interesting, as that the 

 resemblance of the Oligocene and lower Mio- 

 cene Canidse (Canidse and Mustelidse alone 

 appear in the Carnivora) to species inhabiting 

 South America is marked, that the specializa- 

 tion of the limbs and feet of lower Miocene 

 hares " were practically as far advanced as 

 any of their modern descendants," and the 

 description of a new genus of mustelines, 

 Megalictis, and of which "the teeth indicate 

 an animal fully as predaceous as the wolver- 

 ene but the skeleton points to more fossorial 

 habits." At many places in this important 

 contribution there is impressed upon the 

 reader the sense of the writer's detached judg- 

 ment, his freedom from preconception or 

 prejudice, and a willing deliberation in draw- 

 ing conclusions. 



Professor H. Pairfield Osborn furnishes four 

 articles, among which the " Tertiary Mammal 

 Horizons of North America " easily claims 

 preeminence. It is an effort at correlation 

 which will be closely studied, and offers a 

 resume of the observations of a host of in- 

 vestigators in the field. The faunal currents 

 indicated in the sixth phase, with South 

 American land connections, and in the fifth 

 and seventh phases with Eurasiatic invasions, 

 suggest the speculations which the distin- 

 guished author has successfully associated 

 with his name. The remaining three papers 

 of Professor Osborn are " Mounted Skeleton 

 of the Columbian Mammoth," " Points of the 

 Skeleton of the Arab Horse " and " A Mounted 

 Skeleton of Naosaunis," in which last the 

 two plates, one of the skeleton and one of a 

 restoration or model by Charles R. Knight, 

 fairly startle the observer. 



Mr. E. 0. Case contributes three articles, 

 two of systematic value, " The Skull of Bolo- 

 saurus siriatus Cope," " The Genus Zatrachys 

 Cope " and a geological estimate, of much in- 

 terest, of the Permian beds of Texas. A very 

 suggestive study, in so far as it is charged 

 with a consideration of morphological changes 

 and their possible causes, comes from the pen 

 of Professor Earl Douglass; it is entitled 

 " New Merycoidodonts of Montana," and dis- 

 cusses a fossil group of artiodactyles related 

 to the Cervidse. An excellent paper by Mr. 

 Barnum Brown forms article XXXIII. 

 and analyzes the contents and relations 

 of " The Hell Creek Beds of Montana." Dr. 

 O. P. Hay follows the last writer with the 

 description of " Seven New Species of Turtles 

 from the Tertiaries of the United States." 

 These turtles prove to be of striking interest. 

 One, Macrochelys temminichi Hay, was found 

 in probable Pliocene deposits on the western 

 coast of Florida. It was about the size of the 

 alligator snapper which inhabits to-day the 

 region from western Georgia to Texas, but is 

 quite distinct in structure; another species 

 is a new box-tortoise " found in Pliocene or 

 early Pleistocene deposits near Savannah, 

 Georgia, and which exceeded in size any living 

 species of box-tortoise." Among these sug- 

 gestive fossils an example of Aspideretes (A. 



