306 E. H. BARBOUR — NATURE AND PHYLOGENY OP DAEMONELIX. 



Some four or five hundred square miles characterized by such topog- 

 raphy have been explored, even into Wyoming, and Daemonelix is found 

 to be an ever present and striking feature. As nearly as the author can 

 learn, the rangers and ranchmen have known of these stone " screws," 

 " twisters," or " Devil's corkscrews " for 15 or 20 years, yet they escaped 

 public notice until the expeditions sent thither by the University of Ne- 

 braska reported them, for the first time, in Science of February 19, 1892. 



The Devil's corkscrews, found in the topmost beds, from their very 

 size and symmetry force themselves into prominence at once. However, 

 upon passing from the lower beds to the higher, as can easily be done 

 by ascending a canyon, forms varying from simplicity and uniformity 

 to those of ever-increasing diversity and complexity are found, the 

 climax being reached in the topmost beds. This looks like phylogeny. 

 Though hesitating since the first expedition to say so, subsequent explo- 

 ration and study have so far confirmed the first observations and im- 

 pressions that the author feels warranted in proposing this as so many 

 possible steps in the phylogenetic history of a new fossil. If so, this is a 

 fundamental discovery in the study of Daemonelix, and the beds thereby 

 may readily be divided into lower, middle, and upper. Be this as it 

 may, the fact of increasing diversity and complexity from bottom to 

 top remains. 



Mode of Occurrence. 

 daemonelix fibers. 



The simplest form of the Daemonelix series is a hollow tubule or fiber, 

 which is found throughout the Daemonelix beds, from bottom to top, 

 sometimes penetrating the sand-rock like rootlets, or growing in thin 

 mats along fissures, or gathered into great shapeless masses (see plate 32, 

 figures 1, 2, 3, 4). 



Often delicate tracings of these forms are found on the fossils of the 

 region. It may be but a simple fiber growing close upon a bone, or this 

 by branching may have dimensions in two directions, and thus partly 

 veil or cover the fossil with its meshes. Again, it may have growth in 

 three dimensions, and thus completely enclose the submerged form on 

 which the simple plant began. Our collections have innumerable exam- 

 ples of each and all of these conditions. 



It is a matter of frequent occurrence to find fossil bones distinctly and 

 unmistakably etched by the growing fibers of those days. 



Let it be distinctly stated here that it is this self-same fiber and none 

 other which goes to make up each one of the varying forms of the whole 

 Daemonelix series, and the author's belief is that it is according to the 

 arrangement or aggregation of these fibers into this shape or that, that 



