ABSTRACTS OF PAPERS PRESENTED 117 



MINUTES OF SECTIONAL MEETING ON VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY 



The section organized Monday afternoon, December 30, at 3.15, with 

 R. S. Lull as Chairman. W. D. Matthew was elected Secretary, and the 

 section proceeded to the reading of papers. 



The first paper presented was illustrated with lantern slides; 30 min- 

 utes. Discussed by W. D. Matthew. 



THE YALE EXPEDITION OF 1912 

 BY R, S. LULL 



(Abstract) 



The speaker reviewed briefly the itinerary and results of the expedition 

 which he had conducted during the summer of 1912, in the Panhandle region 

 of Texas, for the purpose of securing complete skeletons of fossil horses to 

 supplement the Marsh collection showing the evolution of the horse. The 

 most important specimens secured were practically complete skeletons of the 

 fossil horse Equus scotti and ground sloth Mylodon from the Rock Creek for- 

 mation, and a large series of less complete specimens from the Pleistocene and 

 later Tertiary formations. 



The following paper was then presented by the author; 20 minutes. 

 Discussed by W. D. Matthew. 



RELATIONS OF THE TUPA1IDJE AND OF EOCENE LEMURS, ESPECIALLY 



NOTHARCTUS 



BY W. K. GREGORY 



(Abstract) 



Recent studies upon the Tupaiidw, or tree-shrews, have shown thai this group 

 of Insectivora is allied to the Lemurs and in most respects is morphologically 

 ancestral to them. The Eocene genus Entomolestes is referable to this family, 

 and other early Eocene genera Apatemyidw, Miasodectidee, etcetera, appear to 

 be more or less intermediate between Insectivores and Lemuroid Primates. 

 The genera Notharctus and Pelycodiis of the Middle and Lower Eocene are 

 true Lemuroidea, very close in the detailed construct ion of vertebra, limb 

 bones, and feet to the modern genus Lemur, bnt considerably more primitive 

 in skull, lacking the peculiar specialization which distinguish the modem 

 Lemuridse. While Notharctus is somewhat aberrant in molar dentition, Pely- 

 codus may be regarded as ancestral to modern lemurs. The higher primates 

 are more probably derivable from some of the Anaptomorphld genera, 



There was then presented 



