October, 1930 The Queensland Naturalist 
8 5- 
that, to a large extent, the old species groups are now 
arranged and defined as genera of limited stratigraphical 
range. 
That in Queensland little work has been done with 
such methods is to no one's discredit. Etherdige died 
just about the time when these methods were becoming 
appreciated, and most of the subsequent work on Queens- 
land fossils has been carried out on groups that overseas 
have not yet yielded to such precise treatment. 
It is of interest that McCoy, to whom Australian 
Palaeontology owes so much, may really be regarded as 
the founder of these methods, McCoy, possibly more than 
any palaeontologist of his age, was convinced of the need 
for close generic subdivision of the larger groups. 
In older countries, where there are many workers 
in closely settled areas, there is a natural tendency to 
decry modern palaeontological work by purely museum 
methods. In such countries the paiaentologist should 
undoubtedly be his own collector. But here in Queens- 
land, where there are so few workers in such a vast ter- 
ritory, it will be a long time before “ arm-chair palaeon- 
tology" can ever be abandoned. At present there are 
urgent needs for palaeontological work on three main 
lines : — 
(1) The description of faunas and floras that continu- 
ally are being collected by geologists from 
scattered localities — i.e., a continuation of 
previous methods; 
(2) A more detailed investigation into- the genera 
present in the known Queensland faunas and 
floras ; and 
(3) Detailed zonal work on suitable sections. 
About the first method there is little to say. Careful 
work using the second method, particularly on such groups 
as the corals, echinoderms, bryozoa, branchiopods and 
cephalopods, is urgently needed to solve many of the 
problems that have troubled Australian geology for so 
long — such problems as the correlation of stages in the 
Devonian, Carboniferous and Permian sequence, for 
example. Considering the progress that has been made in 
recent years in the investigation of faunas and floras of 
these ages in other countries, it is not too much to say 
that not only will precise generic investigation solve the 
problems of correlating the faunas of adjacent States in 
the Commonwealth; but that a more or less precise cor- 
relation with the sequence in other countries would not 
long be deferred. 
