156 TEN YEARS^ PROGRESS IN VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY 



short, little detail could be given, Init in order that certain phases of the 

 subject be discussed it was suggested that each participant include, if 

 possible, remarks on the following points : 



(a) Status of our actual knowledge and principal material in different 



museums which has been brought together in rec( 



(b) Theories accepted and rejected in recent years. 



(c) Hypotheses on trial. 



(d) Important investigations and explorations which sh( 



AFRICAN MAMMALS 



BY W. D. MATTHEW 



CONTENTS 



Page 



Location and elements of the Fayiim fauna 156 



Immigrant group 158 



Autochthonic group ; 159 



Marine group 160 



Insectivores and Primates 160 



Conclusions 162 



Location and Elements of the Fayum Fauna 



The discovery of the Fayiim fauna is the most important find of the 

 last decade in vertebrate paleontology. It has added a new and most re- 

 markable type of giant quadruped, primitive stages in the evolution of 

 the Proboscidea, Sirenia, and Cetacea, a wide variety of Hyracoidea, be- 

 sides Carnivora, Eodents, and, if Doctor Schlosser is correct, the earliest 

 known Anthropoid Primates. 



The principal fauna is found in the Fluvio-marine beds of the Fayum 

 district in Egypt, regarded as Upper Eocene by the Egyptian Geological 

 Survey, but now generally accepted as Oligocene from the evidence of the 

 marine invertebrate fauna in the underlying horizon. The marine mam- 

 mals and a few land mammals of doubtful affinities are found in the 

 underlying marine formation, unquestionably of Eocene age. 



The Fayum fauna consists of three elements : 



1. Terrestrial mammals nearly related to the Upper Eocene and Oligo- 

 cene fauna of Europe and North America, and whose ancestors are found 

 in the Eocene of these countries. 



2. Terrestrial mammals not related to the above, except through com- 

 mon derivation from the primitive Paleocene placentals, representing 



