ABSTRACTS OF PAPERS PRESENTED 119 



to Megalonyx, but share a number of peculiar and aberrant features which 

 indicate descent from a common ancestor nearly allied to the Miocene ground 

 sloths of South America. The entire fauna, so far as studied, indicates South 

 American derivation ; it is wholly unlike the contemporary and earlier fauna? 

 of Florida, which are typically North American. It indicates that Cuba has 

 not been connected with North America during the Tertiary, and any con- 

 nection with South or Central America must have been about the Miocene 

 epoch, the fauna indicating isolation since that time. The author believed, 

 however, that the Cuban fauna could not be accounted for by any land con- 

 nections with either continent, but was derivable from occasional immigrants 

 transported on "natural rafts" from South or Central America. 



The following papers were read by title : 



DEVONIAN FISHES OF MISSOURI 

 BY E. B. BRANSON 



(Abstract) 



Several species of arthrodires — one chimasroid and two sharks — have been 

 collected by Mr. Rowley from the Devonian shales, near Louisiana, in north- 

 eastern Missouri. A discussion of the value of these fossils in correlating 

 the Devonian of Missouri with that of other regions, a description of the 

 species, and a summary of what is known of the Devonian of Missouri make 

 up the contents of this paper. 



BRAIN STRUCTURES OF FOSSIL FISHES FROM THE CANE7 SHALES 

 BY C. R. EASTMAN 



(Abstract) 



In April, 1907, some remarkable specimens of Palseonlscid fishes were col- 

 lected by the writer, in company with Mr. Moritz Fischer, of Cincinnati, In 

 phosphatic nodules occurring at the base of the Waverly and Immediately 

 pverlying the so-called Genesee black shale, in Boyle County. Kentucky. A 

 number of fish crania belonging to the species, since described as Rhadinichthys 

 (Irani (Iowa Geol. Surv. Kept, 1908, vol. IS), were found preserved in snch 

 manner as to display the actual soft parts of the brain cavity, including the 

 semicircular canals in their entirety, the olfactory and optic lobes, cerebral 

 hemispheres, and course of the arteries and various nerves. 



Until quite recently this interesting occurrence has remained unique. An 

 analogous instance is presented, however, by the discovery of similar tish 

 bearing concretions from the Caney shale of Oklahoma in which the confor- 

 mation of the internal soft parts is clearly visible within the fractured crania, 

 Only a few small-sized specimens have thus far come under the writer's exam 

 Ination, and these are to be made the snb.jeot of further stndy. together with 



a few associated tish remains, such as sharks- teeth belonging to the genue 



PhCBbodUS, detached ganoid scales, and the like. 



The material in question was collected by Dr. Qeorge H. Girty, "I the I 

 Geological Survey, and by him placed in the writer's hands for Investigation 



