— 231 — 
Note on Erythrosuchus 
In discussing the S&o Bento series of rocks, it is stated that no fossils 
representing the Beaufort beds of South Africa lad yet been discovered in 
Brazil, but now Dr. A. Smith Woodward of the British Museum announces the 
identification of the genus Erythrosuchus in some fossil bones sont him by the 
writer which Dr. Cicero Campos had collected near Sta, Maria, in Rio Grande do 
Sul. The specimens occur about 250 meters below the top of the Sado Bento 
sandstones in the mottled red and white sandy beds which crop along the railroad 
cuttings at Sta. Maria. The fossil reptile, Erythrosuchus africanus, to which the 
Sta. Maria specimen is most closely allied according to Dr. Woodward, was 
figured and described, May 3rd 1906, in the Annals of the South African Museum, 
Volume V, Part Ill, Plate IV, pp. 187-196, by Dr. R. Broom, from the upper 
portion of the Beaufort beds of South Africa. The occurrence of a similar or 
closely allied type inthe Brazilian beds at the horizon in question completes 
and venders perfect the bond of parallelism between the Sta. Catharina system 
of South Brazil and the Karroo System of South Africa, 
I. C. WuHite. 
Jan. 1, 1907. 
Origin of the Carboniferous and Triassic Sediments 
No evidence of the existence of marine beds was observed in 
either the Permian (Carboniferous) or Triassic deposits of Santa 
Catharina or Rio Grande do Sul, and hence it is quite probable thal 
the rocks in those states may be of fluviatile and lacustrine origin. 
Northward, however, in northern Parana and Sao Paulo, the Iraty 
and Estrada Nova beds become limy and hold fossil remains of 
which Dr. Derby say3 (*). «There are species of Schizodus, Conocar- 
dium, Mytilus (or Mod ‘ola) and Astartella? with a number of unde- 
termined genera that look queer in that horizon. There are no Bra- 
chiopods, Aviculoids, Pectinoids, Lima-Arca or Allorisma-likeforms ». 
It is barely possible that the great climatic (glacial) and physical 
changes preceding or inaugurating Permian time in South Brazil, 
as evidenced by the Orleans conglomerate, may have given origin to 
aseries of large inland lakes and lake-like rivers, along which the 
Permian and Triassic deposits accumulated partly as fluviatile and 
partly as lacustrine sediments. That marine conditions existed in 
(*) Etract frum letber dated August 4, 1900. 
