INTRODUCTIOX 403 



ago would be higher; on the other hand, in the newer institutions all the 

 material is relatively recent. It is reasonable to regard the American 

 ^luseum as fairly representative in this matter and to conclude that, so 

 far as American collections go, nine-tenths of them have been obtained 

 during the last thirty years and nearly half during the last twelve years. 



Progress in foreign museums has not been so rapid, especially in Eu- 

 rope, where the earlier collections were more important and the World 

 War seriously curtailed, if it did not eliminate, all scientific activities. 

 Yet even in Europe large additions haxe been made since the beginning 

 of the century and some important ones within the last decade. Judging 

 from what I saw of the principal European maseums in 1900 and again 

 two 3'ears ago, it would, perhaps, strike a fair average to estimate that 

 their collections have been nearly doubled since 1900. 



I will try to specify the more important points in the progress of the 

 last ten or twelve 3'ears. 



Paleozoic Eeptiles, Pekmiax of Texas and South Africa 



On the origin of land vertebrates there is little to report in the way of 

 new discoveries, although the researches of Gregory and Watson in respect 

 to the relations of the earliest land vertebrates to the fringe-finned fishes 

 have advanced our understanding of the problem: nor have any impor- 

 tant new collections been made among the earliest land vertebrate faunas 

 of the Pennsylvanian period. Moodie's monographic revision of the Coal 

 Measures amphibia and reptiles^ affords a most valuable compendium 

 of what is known up to the present time. 



In the Permian faunas, both in Texas and South Africa, there has been 

 a great advance, both in collecting and research, continuing the ax^tivity 

 of the previous decade. Professor Case,^ of Michigan University', and 

 the late Doctor Willist-on," at the University' of Chicago, have been the 

 leaders in this country, and have secured and described large collections 

 from Texas and Oklahoma and greatly increased our knowledge of this 

 ancient vertebrate fauna. The Cope Permian collections at the American 



- K. L. Moodie : (1916.) The Coal Measures amphibia of North America. Carnegie 

 Inst. Pub. no. 2.38. 



* E. C. Case : ( 1907. ) Revision of the Pelyoosaurla. Carnegie Inst. Pub. 55 : 1910, 

 Articles in Amer. Mus. Bull., vol. xxviii ; 1911, Revision of the Cotylosauria, Amphibia, 

 and Pisces of the Permian of North Amerca. Carnegie Inst. Pub., nos. 14.5, 146 ; 1913, 

 Permocarlx»niferous vertebrates from New Mexico, idem., no. 181 ; 191.5, Permocarbon- 

 iferous Red Beds of North America, etc., idem, no. 207 ; 1919, Environment of verte- 

 bi^te life in the late Paleozoic of North America, idem, no. 283. 



* S. W. Williston : (1911.^ American Permian vertebrates. Univ. Chicago Press. 

 And various articles, mostly in the Journal of Geology, 1908 to 1918. 



