1893.] Geology and Paleontology. 37 
Kansas Pterodactyls.—The wealth of material in the museum 
of the Kansas University affords Prof. Williston the opportunity to 
compare the genera Nyctodactylus, Pterodactylus and Pteranodon, 
with the following result: 
“ It seems very probable that the genus Nyctodactylus has no teeth 
in its jaws; it agrees in every other respect with the genus Pterodacty- 
lus, so far as known. Now, in not a few species of Pterodactylus the 
teeth are confined to the anterior end of the jaws, and their entire 
absence, unaccompanied by other structural differences, will hardly 
constitute an order, or even a family. 
“ Pteranodon differs from Pterodactylus, so far as that genus is 
known, in the united coracoscapule and pubes, both of which charac- 
ters are found in Rhamphorhynchus. 
“The sole family characters remaining then, for Pteranodon, are 
absence of teeth, a supra-occipital crest, and the articulation of the 
upper end of the scapula.” 
Prof. Williston, therefore, proposes the following classification : 
Order Pterosauria. 
Family Pterodactylide; sub-families, Pteranodontine, Pterodactyl- 
ine. 
Family Rhamphorhynchide. 
Family Ornithocheiride.—Kansas University Quarterly, July, 1892. 
Geological News, General.—Prof. S. W. Williston considers the 
practice of American text-books in Geology in introducing generic 
names of characteristic fossils as the names of the geological horizons 
whence they come as very reprehensible. Leconte’s Elements contains 
a long list of such names that have long been out of use by paleon- 
tologists.—Kansas Univ. Quart., July, 1892. According to T. Mel- 
lard Reade, marine sands are rounded and highly polished, while 
non-marine but purely glacial sands are invariably angular.— Geolog- 
ical Magazine, Oct., 1892.——M. Boule calls attention to some well- 
preserved remains of Elephas meridionalis found in the volcanic 
terranes of Senéze (Haute-Loire). They resemble E. meridionalis of 
the English Crag. This fossil confirms M. Boule’s previous statement 
that while some of the volcanoes of the valley of the Allier (Coupet 
and Chilhas) were active during the middle Pliocene, others, like 
Senéze, are contemporary with E. meridionalis, and are therefore more 
recenit.—Revue Scientifique, Nov., 1892. 
Paleozoic.—A new form of the rare group Agelacrinitide has _ 
been found in the lower carboniferous limestone of Cumberland, 
