FUBRUARY 20, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



313 



in South Central Montana.' * In order to set- 

 tle beyond a doubt the age of these beds a 

 large collection of fossil leaves was made and 

 determined by Mr. F. II. Knowlton, of the 

 U. S. Geological Survey, who reported the 

 species all Ft. Union beyond a doubt. The 

 invertebrates, so far as discovered, are also 

 Ft. Union. The association of these char- 

 acteristic Ft. Union fossils with basal Eocene 

 mammals such as Mioclcenus, Anisonckus, 

 Euprotogonia and Panlolamhda of New 

 Mexico, constitutes one of the welcome geo- 

 logical correlations of recent years, it has been 

 so difficult hitherto to decide as to the age of 

 the Ft. Union beds. The bearing of this 

 discovery on the age of the Puerco and 

 Torrejon is still open to discussion. This 

 correlation may tend to strengthen the sug- 

 gestion of Professor Cope, who at one time 

 placed the Puerco and Torrejon in an upper- 

 most division of the Cretaceous. Unfortu- 

 nately the mammals of this formation have 

 no exact counterparts in the oldest Eocene 

 mammals of Europe. 



A REVIEW OF THE REPTILIA OF THE TRIAS. 



We are indebted to Friedrich von Huene, 

 of Tiibingen, for a valuable preliminary re- 

 view of the Triassic reptilia in a memoir f of 

 eighty-three pages, illustrated by nine plates. 

 Our knowledge of the Triassic reptiles in 

 general is extremely limited as compared 

 with either that of the Permian reptiles and 

 amphibians, or that of the Jurassic and Cre- 

 taceous ; yet in the Trias the ancestral types 

 of Plesiosaurs and Ichthyosaurs, of Ehyncho- 

 cephalia and Testudinata, of Dinosaurs, of 

 Pterosaurs, and of Crocodilia were so near 

 the point of departure from each other, that 

 Triassic skeletons and skulls, when fully 

 known, will give us the clearest insight into 

 the original relationships of these great orders. 

 The volume contains extensive quotations and 

 figures taken from the general literature of 



* Proc. Amer Philos. Soc, April 3, 1902, pp. 

 •207-224. 



t ' tjbersicht iiber die Reptilien der Trias,' 

 Geol. u. Palwont. Ahh., E. Koken, N. F. VI., Heft 

 1, Jena, 1902. 



the subject, and is fortunately more in the 

 nature of a review and summary of our knowl- 

 edge than of an attempt still further to in- 

 crease the nomenclature. Among the valuable 

 new figures, however, is that of the occiput 

 of Placodus gigas. The author includes the 

 stegocephalian amphibians and anomodont 

 reptiles of the Karoo formation of South 

 Africa in his list. Of these two groups alone 

 there are 85 genera, out of a total of the 155 

 genera heretofore described in the Trias. In 

 connection with this special investigation he 

 is especially desirous of securing casts and 

 figures of specimens from the American Trias. 



A HORNED EOCENE UNGUL.\TE FROM EGYPT. 



The latest addition to the newly discovered 

 mammalian fauna of northern Egypt is even 

 more peculiar than any which have been de- 

 scribed hitherto. Mr. Hugh J. L. Beadnell* 

 gives it the name Arsinoitherium, after Queen 

 Arsinoe. The general form of the somewhat 

 long, narrow skull is rhinocerotine ; the author 

 indeed compares the dentition with that of 

 the rhinoceros, but so far as we can judge 

 from his figures, the true molar teeth, of which 

 the worn pattern reverses that of the rhi- 

 noceroses, do not support this comparison. A 

 most peculiar feature is the enormous pro- 

 tuberance rising out of the anterior half of 

 the skull-top, bifurcating and slightly flatten- 

 ing toward the top, somewhat in the same 

 manner as the horns of the later species of 

 Titanotheres. These bony ' horns ' reached 

 the height of 68 em., as compared with the 

 total length of the skull, 75 cm. To strengthen 

 their support at the base, a vertical bone or 

 septum is carried down, uniting with the pre- 

 maxillaries, as in certain of the heavy-homed 

 rhinoceroses. The animal was as large as 

 one of the larger rhinoceroses, the pelvic 

 girdle having a transverse extent of 140 cm. 

 Further accounts of this pachyderm will be 

 awaited with the greatest interest. . It dem- 

 onstrates that, in addition to the fauna an- 



* ' A Preliminary Note on Arsinoitherium zit- 

 teli, Beadn., from the Upper Eocene Strata of 

 Epypt.' Survey Department, Public Works Min- 

 istry, Cairo, 1902. 



