South African Fossil Reptiles. 
477 
the great prevalence of certain genera, it seems probable that South Africa 
is the original home of the Anomodonts. 
During the greater part of Permian times the Southern continent 
was divided from Europe by sea, but towards the end of the Permian a 
land connection, probably in Asia, allowed the Pareiasaurian fauna to pass 
into Europe, and with the fauna the advanced Southern types of vegeta- 
tion. In Eussia have been found Pareiasaurians scarcely distinguishable 
from those of South Africa, Therocephalians perhaps generically identical 
with African forms, Anomodonts closely allied to, if not identical with, 
Dicynodon, and Stegocephalians. Perhaps the last of the wave of South 
African emigration is to be seen in the lower Elgin fauna of Scotland with 
Elginia, Geikia, and Gordonia. 
After Permian times there is no evidence of any European connection 
till we come to the Upper Triassic beds of Burghersdorp, and we find the 
remarkable state of affairs that while Africa received a large accession 
of European new types Europe apparently did not succeed in getting any 
of the African Cynodonts which form such a distinctive feature of the 
South African Upper Triassic beds. Probably the connection was an 
indirect one by means of a large island which became first separated off 
from the northern continent and later on became joined to the southern 
land. Whatever be the explanation, we know that in Upper Triassic 
times Labyrinthodonts closely allied to the European appeared in South 
Africa. The species of Gapitosaurus and Cyclotosaurus are almost 
identical with those of Europe, and the species of Trematosaurus, though 
larger than the European, is closely allied. 
In Lower Jurassic times the land connection with Europe must 
have been ,well established, as the Dinosaurs of the Stormberg beds 
are nearly identical in some instances with European forms. Further, 
the small mammal Tritylodon is very closely allied to Triglyplius of 
Europe. 
There is little evidence to show how closely Africa was connected with 
Australia during Permian and Triassic times, but in Upper Triassic times 
at least there is some evidence of continuous land having been between 
the Cape and Australia, but whether it extended through India or the 
present Indian Ocean there is little evidence. The occurrence of small 
land reptiles in the Karroo beds of Madagascar seems to suggest that 
much of the Indian Ocean may in the Permian age have been land. 
After Lower Jurassic times too little is known of the land faunas 
of South Africa to afford us evidence of the relations of Africa to the 
other continents. In fact, almost nothing is known of the land fauna 
till we arrive at Pleistocene times. A lower cretaceous Sauropodous 
Dinosaur is known and the frontal bone of a small cretaceous crocodile, 
probably a Teleosaur, has been discovered. 
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