BRAOHIOPODA. 
By J. Allan Thomson, M.A., D.Sc., F.G.S., Director, Dominion Museum, 
Wellington, New Zealand. 
INTRODUCTION AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. 
The Bracliiopoda of the Australian Antarctic Expedition, 1911-1914, are not many 
in number, but are relatively rich in species, and add considerably to a knowledge of 
the faunas of the Antarctic coast-line, Macquarie Island, and Tasmania. 
In the description by Eichler (1911) of the Brachiopods obtained by the German 
Antarctic Expedition, 1901-1903, a resume of the known Antarctic fauna has been 
given. It is now a quarter of a century since an account of the distribution of the 
class in the southern hemisphere was given by Fischer and Oehlert (1892), and since 
that time a considerable number of new species have been described and many previous 
identifications have been corrected. Much also has been learnt with respect to the 
southern Tertiary faunas, from which these recent faunas have in great part descended. 
The present seems a fitting opportunity to bring together these new facts, and to 
show their bearing on the theories of southern land connections which it is one 
of the aims of Antarctic expeditions to prove or disprove. The first part of this 
report, therefore, will be devoted to a systematic description and comparison of the 
new material, and the second to an account of the geographical distribution of the 
Bracliiopoda in the south temperate and Antarctic seas. To render the latter more 
complete, descriptions of two new and significant species from New Zealand have been 
included. 
My warmest thanks are due to Mr. C. Hedley, of Sydney, for generously 
assenting to the present arrangement for the description of these specimens after they 
had been already allocated to him, and also for his kindly encouragement and 
assistance. Professor H. B. Kirk, of Victoria College, Wellington, has given freely 
of his time in overcoming difficulties in the study of the spicules and of the shell 
structure. The photographs from which the plates were prepared were taken mainly 
by myself, but I have to thank Messrs. J. McDonald and F. E. Tomlinson of the 
Dominion Museum, Wellington, for much assistance in this branch of the work, and 
especially in the preparation of the prints from the negatives. Mr. G. E. Harris, 
draughtsman to the Geological Survey of New Zealand, kindly undertook the lettering 
of the accompanying map. 
