BULLETIN OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 

 Vol. 29, pp. 615-630 December 3o, 1918 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE PALEONTOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



GEOLOGIC IIISTOEY OF CENTEAL AMEKICA AND THE 

 WEST INDIES DURING CENOZOIC TIME ^ 



BY THOMAS WAYLAND VAUGHAN 



{Read before the Paleontological Society January 1, 1918) 



CONTENTS 



Page 



Introduction 615 



Geographic relations of the three Americas 616 



Correlation of the Tertiary formations of the south Atlantic and eastern 



Gulf Coastal Plain 621 



Correlation of the Tertiary sedimentary formations of Panama and the 



West Indies ' 621 



Paleogeographic summary 622 



In general 622 



Late Paleozoic 622 



Cenozoic 62.3 



Eocene and Oligocene 623 



Miocene 624 



Pliocene and later 625 



Tabular summary of some of the important events in the geologic history 

 of the West Indies and Central America 629 



Introduction 



During the past two or three years several papers of miTisual impor- 

 tance, in my opinion, have appeared on the geographic distribution of 

 terrestrial organisms. These include "Climate and evolution/^ ^ by W. D. 

 Matthew ; "The development of the natural order Myrtacecae/' ^ "The 



1 Manuscript received by tlie Secretary of tlie Society August 22, 1918. 



The article lierewitti presented is based upon a paper by me, entitled "Ttie biologic 

 character and geologic correlation of the sedimentary formations of Panama in relation 

 to the geologic history of Central America and the West Indies." now in page proof, as 

 the closing part of Bulletin 103 of the U. S. National Museum, which bears the general 

 title "Contributions to the geology and paleontology of the Canal Zone, Panama, and 

 geologically related areas in Central America and the West Indies." The two correla- 

 tion tables contained in the present article have been published in the .Tournal oC tho 

 Washington Academy of Sciences, vol. 8, no. 1), May 4, 1918, pp. 272-275. 



2 New York Acad. Sci. Ann., vol. 24, 1915, pp. 171-.3,18. 



3 New South Wales Linn. Soc. Proc, vol. 38, 1913, pp. 529-5G8. 



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