1896.] Anthropology. 52? 



expedition informs me that " the fossil shells are not all recent species 

 since even the level plains about twenty to twenty five miles from the 



Merida, Turritella perattenuata and Turritella apicalis from R. R. cut 

 one-half mile east of Tekanto. Ostrea meiidionalis and Area species 

 undetermined, from a digging near Merida and Lucina disciformis) not 

 now known to be living, and which make part of the Floridian forma- 

 tion (the typical Pliocene of the United States). Furthermore in 

 the Sierra which contains the caves, a number of fossil forms have 

 been found the determination of which is rather doubtful, but which 



Fig. 3. The various kinds of ground plans us 



ed in Maya (ancient Yuca- 







(a) Single chamber building with plain door. 





(b) Single chamber temple with wide doorway and two square columns. 



(c) Two chamber temple with wide doorway; 





Sanctuary with single plain doorway. 





(d) Two chamber temple, the vestibule with simple doorway and the Sanc- 



tuary with three doorways and a low altar. 





(e) Four chamber temple Palenque type, the ve 





and two squari-h :.i. -rs, the Sanctuary with tablet 



chamber, and two small 



(/) Three chamber temple, Chichen Itza type 



, the vestibule entered by 



wide portel with two - r iv enlarged by introducing 



two square columns to support the triple vault, ant 



1 a longgalki. 



doorways extending behind. 





may be of early Pliocene or even of Miocene Age." Professor Pilsbry 

 of the Academy of Natural Sciences and Mr. C. W. Johnson of the 

 Wagner Institute say further after examination of the shell bearing 

 rock specimens brought home by the Expedition above mentioned 

 and now in the Academy -i Natural Sciences, that "the shells indicate 

 late Pliocene but by no means Plistocene Age, the presence of several 

 characteristic Pliocene species Turritella (2 species) Fulgur rapum. 

 Pecten eboreus Amusium mortonii, and Ostrea meridionalis pre- 

 venting the possibility of the rocks being assigned to a later Epoch 

 than the Pliocene while the fossils extinct and still existing considered 

 together, indicate that the formation was contemporaneous with the 

 Floridian formation of Prof. Heilprin." 



