SUMMARY 495 



This assemblage of forms suggests the fauna of the Dolores " saurian 

 conglomerate." The locality is less than 100 miles southeast from the 

 easternmost known exposures of the Dolores formation, the intervening 

 country being occupied by Cretaceous formations. It is therefore very 

 natural to suppose that the vertebrate and plant-bearing Trias of Chama 

 valley may be the direct equivalent of the lower Dolores formation. 

 Apparently the fossiliferous strata of New Mexico are not overlain by a 

 massive red sandstone equivalent to the Wingate sandstone of Dutton. 

 The " Variegated Marls " of Newberry, which seem clearly to belong to 

 the McElmo or Morrison beds, intervene between the " Saliferous series " 

 and the Cretaceous. 



The Gallinas mountains, where Cope obtained his Triassic vertebrates, 

 are probably considerably less than 200 miles west of the district into 

 which Lee is said to have traced the Red beds of the Purgatoire (see page 

 493), and while the lithologic characters of the belodont-bearing strata 

 of the two districts are possibly quite different, it is a natural suggestion 

 from both stratigraphic and paleontologic grounds that theyjmay repre- 

 sent practically one horizon. 



Summary. 



Some of the more important conclusions drawn from the facts and isd- 

 cussion presented in the foregoing pages may be summarized as follows: 



1. A marked angular unconformity is exhibited near Ouray, Colo- 

 rado, between a well denned fossiliferous horizon of the Dolores Triassic 

 formation and an extensive section of Paleozoic beds, including the Cut- 

 ler Permian and the Hermosa Pennsylvanian formations. 



2. The Ouray unconformity is evidence of a stratigraphic break, of as 

 yet unknown importance, in the midst of the Red beds of western Col- 

 orado. There are reasons to suppose that this hitherto unrecognized 

 break is widespread and explains many discordant features of various 

 Red bed sections, not only in Colorado, but in the adjacent Plateau 

 province. 



3. The fossiliferous horizon of the Dolores formation, occurring above 

 the unconformity noted, has been traced down the Dolores and San 

 Juan valleys into the Plateau province. The sections of the mountain 

 and plateau districts are comparable in many ways. 



4. A vertebrate fauna, similar to or identical with that of the Dolores 

 formation, has been found at widely separated points in New Mexico, 

 Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado, and paleontologists regard it as 

 clearly of upper Triassic characteristics. 



5. Through the stratigraphic correspondence of the Red beds and asso- 

 ciated formations in the Rocky Mountain and Plateau provinces and 



LXIY— Buia. Gsql. Soc, Am., Vol, 16. 1904 



