414 G. R. Wieland — Polar Climate in Time. 



general idea was vaguely suggested by Saporta, and very defi- 

 nitely by Scribner twenty-iive years since, it lias never hitherto 

 been seriously entertained, worked out, or applied by verte- 

 brate paleontologists in their discussion of the distribution of 

 fossil faunae. 



As here held because of the following reasons, the north 

 polar area has since the Carboniferous been of relatively more 

 importance in the origination of hardy stocks with strong 

 invasive power, and which have mainly followed outwardly 

 lines of longitude, the more readily because of the secular 

 retreat southward of troj)ical conditions throughout long 

 periods of time : 



(ci) The parallelism between the life of America and Eurasia 

 is apparently greater than that of the more isolated continental 

 areas of the far south — South Africa, Notogaea, and E'eoggea. 



{h) The great land masses lie about and project well within 

 the Arctic area, and have, therefore, afforded the presumably 

 wider geographic range.' 



(c) There is much reason to believe that the lands near the 

 north pole were always much divided into islands and peninsulas, 

 and were thus, as elsewhere explained, a more active scene of 

 plant and animal change than even a much larger and more iso- 

 lated body of land such as Antarctica may have been. 



{d) It is reasonably certain that over a large portion of the 

 Antarctic area the continuity of life was interrupted by glacial 

 conditions in the Permian. 



But the same physical and ethologic principles apply to both 

 of the polar areas. And it is of much moment to the views 

 here advanced that although the discovery of the first evidence 

 of the ancient vertebrate and plant life of Antarctica is yet to 

 be made, the former presence of abundant life within the 

 austral area has at various times been suggested or claimed. A 

 convenient summary of literature bearing on this subject has 

 been given by A. E. Ortmann."^ And Osbornf says very 

 distinctly that, " One of the greatest triumphs of recent bio- 

 logical investigation is the concurrence of botanical, zoological, 

 and paleontological testimony in the reconstruction of a great 

 southern continent to which the name Antarctica has been 

 given." 



The discovery of the great horned turtle Miolania in Pata- 

 gonia, Australia, and Lord Howe Island, and as yet nowhere 

 else, is only one of various striking facts that do suggest a 

 former south polar land connection of these now widely sepa- 

 rated localities. But not to tarry too long, I shall only remark 

 that the views of Antarctica have come to be much involved 



*Am. Nat., vol. xxxv, No. 410, Feb., 1901. 



f Ann. New York Acad. Sci., No. 1, pp. 1 to 72, July 31, 1900. 



