124 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



the north, greater in the later (Erere) stage than in the earher 

 (Maecurii), cease and determine at these latitudes. 



The austral faunas of Brazil, Argentina and the Falkland 

 islands. The employment of the term austral, which I have used 

 before as an emphatic distinction from the boreal faunas, means 

 that in these regions under consideration and in Cape Colony as 

 well, in other words, throughout the higher latitudes of both 

 southern continents, there is a palpable and fundamental difference 

 from the boreal faunas. The fact may well be stated with emphasis, 

 but not to the exclusion of certain common bonds which declare 

 the age of the faunas. It is well known now, was stated by Stein- 

 mann, A. Ulrich and Knod for Bolivia and corroborated by my own 

 somewhat protracted researches upon materials from Sao Paulo, the 

 Argentinian Cordilleras and the Falkland islands, that, in terms of 

 biology, there is no Devonic in these southern latitudes except the 

 early Devonic. Whatever the thickness of the sedimentation may be 

 (unknowji now) and whatever its lithology, it is all of an age 

 which corresponds in paleontology to the early Devonic of the 

 north. Whether the duration of deposition here does or does not 

 represent only that of the northern Lower Devonic or that of the 

 entire northern Devonic, it is perfectly clear that the fauna is one 

 fauna and endured from the beginning to end of marine Devonic 

 deposition. If there may have been a series of later Devonic faunas 

 in these regions, we must say either that they were cut out by 

 geography or cover our ignorance in the buried rocks. Professor 

 Kayser, writing on some of the spirifers from Tibagy, in Sao Paulo, 

 was among the first to indicate the quality of the Brazilian fauna, 

 and the work of A. Ulrich and Knod in Bolivia has added con- 

 firmation to the interpretation of this Devonic. 



Now that we have assembled the fauna of all these regions in 

 reasonable fulness, the conclusion regarding the time equivalence 

 of the entire austral fauna stands out with clarity. The Falkland 

 sandstones, the Tibagy sands, the Sao Paulo lime muds, the sands of 

 Argentina are variations in sedimentation whose exact relations 

 in stratigraphy are not yet known, but wdiich are knit together by 

 a common biology. An obstacle to the solution of the real character 

 of the paleontology here has been the natural impulse on the part 

 of students in this field, bringing to their interpretations an acquaint- 

 ance with the boreal Devonic, to enforce parallels and identifications 

 of southern with northern species — to squeeze the unknown into 

 the moulds of the known — a customary and often an almost im- 

 perative procedure. 



