VERTEBRATE EVIDENCE 337 



application to other parts of the world, except perhaps as to its larger 

 divisions, and that even in this respect it will need modification.'^ 



Vertebrate Evidence 



I shall have very little to say regarding the vertebrate evidence. If the 

 presence of dinosaurs is to be taken as pi-ima facie indication of Creta- 

 ceous age, then this discussion might as well end at once, for it is beyond 

 question that dinosaurs are present in beds above the unconformity which, 

 in my opinion, separates Cretaceous from Tertiary. 



Vertebrate paleontologists have claimed that the dinosaur fauna of the 

 Lance, Denver, etcetera, does not give any indication of this time break, 

 thereby implying that there is a dinosaur fauna immediately below the 

 unconformity which can be directly compared with the Ceratops fauna. 

 But is this true ? So far as known to me, from field observations and a 

 study of the literature, dinosaurs have not been found in the beds which 

 immediately underly the unconformity — that is, in Laramie, Fox Hills, 

 uppermost Pierre, etcetera — except possibly in Alberta and below the 

 Puerco formation, where the relations are in doubt. 



The nearest dinosaur fauna with which that of the "Ceratops beds" 

 can be compared is in the Belly Eiver, which is stratigraphically some 

 2,000 feet below the unconformity, and when we make this comparison 

 we find, I am told by Mr. Gilmore, that not a single species, and perhaps 

 only a single genus, is common to Belly Eiver and "Ceratops beds.'' The 

 Ceratops fauna, therefore, proves clearly that there has been a very dis- 

 tinct change in passing over the line of the unconformity. 



A word may be said regarding the Edmonton of Canada, which has 

 been supposed to be the same as the Lance formation of the United 

 States. According to Barnum Brown, the dinosaur fauna of the lower 

 portion of this formation — the so-called lower Edmonton — is distinctly 

 more primitive than that of the Lance, being in fact much more closely 

 related to that of the Belly Eiver. In one of his later papers, dealing 

 with this field, Mr. Brown has announced his intention of establishing a 

 new formation for this lower Edmonton; but until the full data, strati-. 

 graphic as well as paleontologic, have been published it is perhaps useless 

 to speculate further concerning the fauna. I may say, however, that Mr. 

 Brown has kindly permitted me to study the fossil plants of the Edmon- 

 ton section, and I have found them, with the following exception, to be 

 uniformly of Fort Union or Lance types. The collection from 16 miles 

 below Tolman, in beds stated on the labels accompanying the specimens 

 to be lower Edmonton, is distinct from anything before submitted to me. 



