582 BULLETIN 103, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



MIDDLE OLIGOCENE. 



As stated on page 203 in the discussion of the coral faunas, the 

 Antiguan Oligoccne must, in my opinion, be taken as the type forma- 

 tion and type locality of tho middle (Rupelian) Oligoccne of America. 

 I have definitely correlated with this horizon tho reef -coral fauna 

 from Touosi, Panama, station 6587, which I consider to bo the strati- 

 graphic equivalent of the lower part of the Culebra formation. 

 Lepidocycl'ma panamensis and L. duplicata arc associated For- 

 aminifera. The presenco of marine deposits of this age in Antigua, 

 Porto Rico, Santo Domingo, Cuba, Florida, Alabama, and eastern 

 Mexico has been mentioned on pages 199-207. 



Messrs. Roy E. Dickerson and W. S. W. Kcw have recently pub- 

 lished a paper * in which they say: "most of tho localities listed below 

 appear to belong to the San Fernando formation of Bumble." This 

 name is invalid, because it is preoccupied by tho name of certain 

 formations in Trinidad, and has been renamed San Rafael formation 

 by E. T. Dumblc. On page 205 of this volume I correlate it with 

 the middle Oligoccne Antigua formation, the basal part of tho Chatta- 

 hoochee formation, and tho European Rupelian, on tho basis of tho 

 corals, which possess no such heterogeneous stratigraphic affinities as 

 the fossils recorded by Messrs. Bickerson and Kcw. I will not hero 

 undertake to analyze tho fauna they report, but will say that it con- 

 tains names of spocios of upper Eocene (Jackson-Ludian), lower 

 Oligoccne (Vicksburgian-Lattorfiam), upper Oligoceno (upper Chatta- 

 hoochee-Tampa-Aquitanian), and lowor Miocene (lower part of tho 

 Alum Bluff and tho higher horizon roprosonted by the Bowdon marl- 

 Burdigalian) age. In fact thoir list includes nearly every horizon 

 from upper Eocone almost to middle Miocene. I will not attempt 

 to explain this surprising paloontologic asscmblago as the collections 

 may represent a number of horizons, the species may be misidenti- 

 ficd, or some of tho species may havo extraordinary stratigraphic 

 ranges; and it will be mentioned that, as in at least one instanco 

 Cotteau mado an error in stating the locality at which the type of 

 a species was collected, there is some confusion for which Messrs' 

 Dickerson and Kew are not responsible. An attempt will be made 

 to remove in the forthcoming memoirs on West Indian paleontology 

 as much of this kind of confusion as is possible. 



West of Alabama in Mississippi and Louisiana thoro are plant- 

 bearing bods of middle Oligoccne ago, for a considerable part of tho 

 Catahoula sandstone is certainly of that age, but that formation seems 

 to include beds of lower, middle, and probably upper Oligoccne age. 

 No middle Oligoccne deposits are known in Texas. There is no 



> The fauna of a medial Tertiary formation and the associated horizons of northeastern Mexico, Cali- 

 fornia Acad. Sci. Proc, vol. 7, pp. 125-156, pis. 17-2Ga, 1917 (date printed with title July 30, 1917; received 

 by me Oct. 16, 1917). 



