104 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIII. No. 1099 



might have been the case had they been accom- 

 panied by critical notes, or had they been pre- 

 pared with the same fulness as Dr. Lydekker's 

 valuable discussions in Science Progress for 

 the last few years. It is hoped that the fol- 

 lowing account of the year's achievements in 

 the field of vertebrate paleontology may, in a 

 measure, supply the deficiency which has here- 

 tofore existed. 



Fishes. — Owing to the stress of conditions 

 abroad, it is natural that the chief advance in 

 vertebrate paleontology since the war began 

 should have been made in this country. 

 Nevertheless, several very important contri- 

 butions by foreign authors are to be recorded. 

 Among the latter may be mentioned Dr. A. S. 

 Woodward's generalizations on the evolution- 

 ary history of the class of fishes, as contained 

 in his anniversary address before the Geolog- 

 ical Society of London (February 19, 1915). 

 The net result of this author's observations is 

 thus formulated: 



Each successive great group of fishes began with 

 free-swimming fusiform animals. . . . Some of 

 them always passed quickly into slow-moving 

 (deep-bodied or grovelling, depressed and large- 

 headed) types, while others changed more slowly 

 into elongated or eel-shaped types. There was also 

 a constant tendency for the primitive symmetry 

 of the parts of the skeleton in successive mem- 

 bers of a group to become marred by various 

 more or less irregular fusions, suppressions and 

 subdivisions. Finally, some of the successive spe- 

 cies of each group gradually increased in bodily 

 size until the maximum was reached, just before 

 the time for extinction had arrived. These and 

 many other more special changes have now been 

 traced in a general way in each group, and the 

 various geological periods at which they occurred 

 have been determined by observations on fossil 

 fishes from many parts of the world. 



Professor P. Priem, of Paris, presents a val- 

 uable account of the Cretaceous and Eocene 

 fishes of Egypt,^ and has continued his studies 

 on Upper Tertiary fish remains from south- 

 western France.^ Dr. Edward Hennig, of the 

 Berlin Museum, reports the interesting dis- 

 covery of otoliths in the type species of Palwo- 



^Bull. Soo. Geol. France, Vol. 14, pp. 366-382, 

 pi. X. 



ilUd., pp. 119-131; 249-278. 



niscus, from the Permian of Saxony. A note 

 on the parasphenoid bone of the same genus, 

 by Henry Day,^ contains observations which 

 lead the author to conclude " in favor of a 

 primitive Teleostome, and against a Dipnoan, 

 derivation of the Tetrapoda." African fossil 

 fishes form the subject of two contributions by 

 Edward Hennig,^ and a further one by Ernst 

 Stromer von Reichenbach,^ of Munich. 



In this country Dr. P. L. Moodie,^ of the 

 University of Illinois, has reinvestigated the 

 fossilized brain-structure and auditory organs 

 of a small Palseoniseid species, Bhadinichthys 

 deani, first described by Eastman and Parker 

 from specimens found in the Waverly of Ken- 

 tucky. Similar remains are also reported 

 from the Caney shale of Oklahoma, and the 

 Pennsylvanian of Lawrence, Kansas. The 

 same author also reviews the literature re- 

 lating to fossil brain casts of dinosaurs and 

 other extinct animals. Some additions to our 

 knowledge of the Jurassic fish-fauna of Solen- 

 hofen and Cerin, France, are made by C. R. 

 Eastman in his studies of Carnegie Museum 

 material.'' 



Dr. W. K. Gregory,^ of the American Mu- 

 seum of Natural History, presents a concise 

 review of the evolutionary history of the prin- 

 cipal groups of fishes, with special reference 

 to the skull and locomotor organs. He brings 

 together considerable evidence for the view 

 that certain of the Devonian Crossopterygii 

 were related to the four-footed terrestrial ver- 

 tebrates, and attempts to trace the gradations 

 by which the pectoral and pelvic fins of these 

 fishes were transformed into the fore and hind 

 limbs of the earliest amphibians. 



3 Ann. Mag. Nat. Eist., Vol. 16, pp. 421-434. 



iArchiv. f. Biontologie, Vol. 3, pp. 291-312. 

 This is on fish remains obtained by the Tenda- 

 guru expedition. The second paper, on Semio- 

 notus from South Africa, is published in the 

 Sitsber. Ges. Naturf. Freunde Berlin, 1915, pp. 

 49-51. 



5 Zeitschr. Deutscli. Geol. Ges., Vol. 66, pp. 

 420-425. 



6 Jour. Compar. Neurology, Vol. 25, No. 2. 

 ''Mem. Car. Mtis., Vol. 6, Nos. 6, 7. 



s Annals N. ¥. Acad. Soi., Vol. 26, pp. 317- 

 383, pi. IV. 



