Geology and Natural History. 271 



all imported. Eyes and color tend to degenerate ; but cave ani- 

 mals are marvelously sensitive to tactile sensations, especially to 

 vibrations; and experiments goto prove that blind cave fishes are 

 still sensitive to pencils of light over the entire body. In general 

 the older caves have a more profoundly modified fauna than the 

 newer, and cave animals tend to converge while epigean animals 

 tend to diverge. . b. s. l. 



11. Die Saugetierontogenese in Hirer Bedeutung fur die Phy- 

 logenie der Wirbeltiere ; by A. A. W. Hubbecht. Jena, 1909 

 (Gustav Fischer). Pp. 247, with 186 figures in the text. — In this 

 important memoir Professor Hubrecht discusses the early ontog- 

 eny of mammals and its bearing upon the accepted phylogeny of 

 the vertebrates. The paper sums up the later work not only of 

 the author but of contemporary embryologists and arrives at some 

 very interesting conclusions, several of which, however, are yet 

 open to corroborative proof from other branches of biology. 



Hubrecht regards the foetal structures as of prime importance 

 in the study oi mammalian evolution, for the finer details of ontog- 

 eny give us a keen insight into the relationship of the various 

 groups. The author proposes a new classification based upon 

 this source of knowledge, which will not, however, be universally 

 accepted. He divides the vertebrates into four super-classes : 

 (1) Cephalochordata (Amphioxus) ; (2) Cyclostomata ; (3) 

 Chondrophora (Elasmobranchii) ; (4) Osteophora (all higher 

 vertebrates). 



He suggests that many of the Dipnoi, Ganoids, and Teleosts 

 may have had terrestrial ancestors just as did the Cetacea ; that 

 the mammals and Sauropsida may both trace their phylogeny back 

 through amphibian-like Carboniferous animals and thence back- 

 ward through aquatic ancestors to worm-like forms derived from 

 the Coelenterate stem. Based upon evidence derived from the 

 placentation, Hubrecht concludes that Man, the Anthropoid apes 

 and the insectivorous hedgehog are most primitive ; the human 

 ontogeny showing the most archaic characteristics of all — an 

 interesting argument in favor of the high antiquity of Man. 



b. s. L. 



12. The Occurrence of Strepsicerine Antelopes in the Tertiary 

 of Northwestern Nevada ; by John C. Mebbiam. University of 

 California Publications, Vol. V, No. 22, pp. 319-330. — The expe- 

 dition of 1909 to the Virgin Valley and Thousand Creek region 

 of N. W. Nevada procured a wide range of mammalian forms of 

 which a considerable per cent are new. Of these some of the 

 most interesting are twisted-horned antelopes, known now only 

 in Africa and throwing additional light upon past mammalian 

 migrations. Two new genera, each with a new species, are de- 

 scribed which are most nearly related to the strepsicerine or tra- 

 gelaphine division of the antelope group, now confined to Africa, 

 but represented by several typical twisted-horned types in Europe 

 and Asia in later Tertiary time. b. s. l. 



