46 The American Geologist. luiv. idol 
THE AGE OF THE KANSAS-OKLAHOMA " 
RED-BEDS. 
By J. W. Beeijb, Effingham, Kansas. 
The "Red-beds" of Kansas and Oklahoma have l)een re- 
ferred to all the geologic periods from the Pertiiian to the Cre- 
taceous inclusive. Until recently no fossils have been known 
from these deposits. The thickness of these beds in Kansas is 
about 1,150 feet. 
A few years ago Prof. C. N. Gould found some imper- 
fectly preserved ostracod crustaceans which Air. T. Rupert 
Jones referred to a Triassic group of the genus Esfhcria under 
the name Esfhcria minnta. A little later Prof. Gould found 
some excellent specimens of Eriops, a Permian vertebrate, as- 
sociated with these same fossils, all of which came from near 
the base of the beds, leaving the age of a majority of them still 
in doubt, especially those above the great gypsum beds. 
Last summer professor Gould, with a party of the Oklahoma 
geological survey, discovered fossil invertebrates at Horse 
Springs, west of Alva, O. T., above the Cave Creek gypsum 
nearlv at the top of the red-beds. The fossils were submitted 
to the writer for identification and later to Air. Charles 
Schuchert, who offered some valuable suggestions. They are 
mainlv pelecvpods with a species of brachiopod and a few 
gastropods. 
Though no species of Conocardiiiiii, so far as I am aware, 
is known from the Lower Permian of Kansas or Oklahoma, 
yet this Carboniferous genus is represeijjted in the collection. 
Aviculopcctcn occidcntaUs (Shum* » Meek, is also present and 
one other species bearing somewhat of a resemblance to it but 
quite ditferent from it in some respects, is also nresent. One 
of the common fossils is a biplicate terebratuloid, Diclasma 
schuchcrti Peede,* belonging to a group of this genus hereto- 
fore unknown in the American' Permian. Mr. Schuchert in- 
forms me that it is verv similar to a species of this genus de- 
scril)ed b\' Waagen from the Permian of Europe. 
Among the other genera represented are Schirjodus, Nafi- 
copsis and PIcnrophonis. 
f See forthcoming Rep. Geol. Surv. O. T. 
