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South Africa, pointed out numerous mammal-like characters seen in them 

 and in 1880 definitely expressed the view that the . primitive mammals 

 living to-day in Australia are the direct descendants of a reptilian ances- 

 tor such as he had described. Huxley, on the other hand, favored the 

 descent of the mammals from a salamander-like form, and the contest 

 between those who believe they are descended from amphibians and those 

 who look on reptiles as their ancestors has been urged ever since — some- 

 times rather vigorously. 



When Cope, in 1880, studied the remarkable pelycosaurs, fin-backed 

 reptiles found in the old Permian rocks of New Mexico and Texas, he 

 came to the conclusion that he had found, if not the mammalian ancestors, 

 at least forms allied to them, and in this I believe he was quite correct. 



Between 1888 and 1905, Professor Osborn published a considerable 

 number of papers dealing with the origin of mammals, in which he 

 argued that the ancestor of the mammal was probably a member of that 

 group of very mammal-like reptiles found in South Africa and called 

 Cynodonts. This view of Osborn's seems at first sight opposed to that of 

 Cope's, but in all probability both views were correct, the Pelycosaurs 

 being a side branch from a direct line very near to the early mammalian 

 ancestors, the Cynodonts being probably the immediate ancestors of the 

 mammal. 



Baur, who worked here in America and died some fifteen years ago, 

 was in favor of the reptile origin. Seeley adopted a rather curious view. 

 He believed that the egg-laying mammals came from reptiles but that 

 other mammals arose from amphibians. On the whole, the Germans have 

 favored the amphibians as ancestors, while English opinion, although 

 somewhat divided, has mainly been in support of the reptilian theory. 

 The majority of Americans, doubtless influenced by Cope and Osborn, 

 have always favored the descent of the mammals from a reptilian ancestor. 



I became interested in the question in 1885 and practically resolved 

 then that I would contribute what I could to the solution of the problem. 

 In 1892, I went to Australia and spent some years in studying the egg- 

 laying mammals and marsupials. In 1897, I went to South Africa and 

 have been working in that region for the last seventeen years. In these 

 seventeen years, nearly every specimen that has been picked up there has 

 passed through my hands. 



After describing the Karroo formation in which these fossils are found, 

 the speaker described some of the principal types of mammal-like rep- 

 tiles as follows : The oldest animals we meet with in the Karroo forma- 

 tion in any number are of middle Permian age, shall we say of the year 

 18,000,000 B.C. These are of especial interest from the resemblance 



