DIFFERENT PROVINCES OF NORTH AMERICA IN LATE PALEOZOIC TIME 73 



Conemaugh series. (4) The reported occurrence of reptiles and amphibians 

 from the Conemaugh of Ohio was based upon evidence that has not been 

 verified and seems in itself insufficient.-^ 



According to Scudder, the insects found at Steubenville, Ohio, have a 

 very decided Permo-Carboniferous (Permian) aspect. 



For the reasons advanced by I. C. White and the contributory evidence 

 of the vertebrate fauna, it seems necessary at the very least to examine 

 carefully the possibility of faunal equivalence of the middle Conemaugh and 

 the Permo-Carboniferous of Texas and Oklahoma. Stauffer,^ in the article 

 cited above, states his belief in the equivalence of the Dunkard of Ohio 

 and the Wichita formation of Texas. 



"In view of this evidence of the vertebrate fossils, there can be no doubt 

 that the lower portion of the Dunkard series is the equivalent of the lower Texas 

 beds (Wichita) which overlies the Cisco and that in all probability both beds 

 are Permian." 



There is, however, much doubt that the occurrence of a single spine of 

 Edaphosaurus is sufficient evidence upon which to base such a conclusion. 

 A spine tentatively assigned by Case to the same genus was found by Ray- 

 mond in the Pittsburgh red shale of middle Conemaugh time, which is much 

 lower than the Texas vertebrate-bearing horizon. It seems to the author 

 that in view of all facts it is far more probable that the presence of the 

 vertebrate fauna of Permo-Carboniferous age depends rather upon climatic 

 and physiographic conditions than upon any single time interval which can 

 be identified stratigraphically in different parts of the continent. It is well 

 known that in Pennsylvanian time the continent was gradually rising on 

 the eastern side and that the conditions which influenced the deposition of 

 late Pennsylvanian and Permo-Carboniferous beds progressed consistently 

 to the west. This would produce a series of beds rising obliquely across the 

 stratigraphic column toward the west and involve a correlation of conditions 

 by the climatic and faunal elements in no sense synchronous in all places. 

 This is a thesis which will be defended in another part of this work. 



The stratigraphy of the upper Pennsylvanian and Permo-Carboniferous 

 of Pennsylvania and West Virginia has been published in detail and need 

 not be recapitulated. Only those formations which require discussion will 

 be cited in the course of this summary. The probability of the equivalence 

 of these beds in the Northeastern and Southern Subprovinces has already 

 been stated (page 64). David White^ gives the following statement con- 

 cerning the deposits of the Pennsylvanian in the Southern Subprovince: 



" Character of the sediments. — The rock-forming materials are mainly terrig- 

 enous, brought down by rivers chiefly from eastward lands, which were probably 



^ See Carnegie Inst. Wash. Pub. No. 207, p. 80, 1915. 



2 Stauffer, C. R., Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer., vol. 27, p. 88, 1915. 



^ White, David, in Professional Paper No. 71, U. S. Geological Survey, p. 430, 1912. 



