XIV 
ERIK A : SON STENSIO 
with those at Olenek and Verchojansk and the circumpacific ones, into a great Arctic- 
Pazific faunistic province. Later on (p. 154) when he enters on the question of the relations 
between this province nda the one he calls the Mediterranean he makes the following 
statements: 
«In den norischen Ablagerungen der mediterranen Triasprovinz finden sich nur 
einige wenige arktische Typen (aus der Gruppe der Dinarites spiniplicati ) und von 
arktischen Typen derivirte Gattungen (ein Teil der Arpaditen). . Auch konnten wir 
umgekehrt konstatieren, da (3 einige mediterrane Gattungen zur norischen Zeit in die 
pazifischen Gewasser eingedrungen waren. Es haben also jedenfalls zeitweise Verbin- 
dungen zwischen ben beiden Territorien bestanden, welche Wanderungen der pelagischen 
Tiere gestatteten. Es ist aber bezeichnend fur den Zeitpunkt des Bestandes dieser Ver- 
bindungen, daft nur Gattungen und Typen der unteren Abteilungen (der Olenekschichten 
und des unteren Muschelkalks) die Verbindung dei mediterranen und der arktisch- 
pazifischen Trias anzeigen.* 
In 1904 Smith (pp. 33 1— 333 , 365— 36 y) came to the conclusion that the Triassic strata 
in Idaho, California and British Columbia did not belong to the Arctic-Pacific Triassic 
province as Mojsisovics had maintained, and he is also doubtful whether this province other¬ 
wise formed a faunistic unit. He groups the Triassic strata in Idaho, California and British 
Columbia into a province by themselves and with regard to this he states that its fauna 
showed an admixture both of Mediterranean-Oriental and Arctic elements. According to 
his opinion there existed communications in lower and middle Triassic between the 
region he calls Oriental on the one hand and the Arctic-Pacific on the other. 
Noetling (1905, pp. 206—208) lays great stress on the faunistic differences between 
the Triassic series of Spitzbergen and those of North Siberia and comes to the conclusion 
that they must belong to different faunistic provinces, a view that was contested later 
on by Diener (1916). 
Wimans description of the Triassic Ichthyosaurians of Spitzbergen in 1910 clearly 
showed that the Saurians are also of considerable interest from a faunistic and strati- 
graphical point of view and as early as 1911 Merriam published a paper on this subject, 
in which he arrives at the following conclusion (p. 327): «On the whole, such evidence 
as is available suggests that the saurian fauna of the Spitzbergen Triassic is not far 
removed in time from the Cymbospondylus fauna of the Middle Triassic of Nevada, and 
that it is also near the age of the Mixosaums fauna of the Besano Beds of Italy. It may 
also be assumed that at the period in which these faunas flourished there was free 
communication between the sea areas of the Spitzbergen, Nevada, and north Italian regions.» 
In 1916 the same subject was dealt with in detail by Wiman (1916 a, pp. 71 — 72) 
who also points out the difference between the Saurian fauna in the Triassic of Spitz¬ 
bergen and that known in other Triassic regions. In the chapter below on the composi¬ 
tion and the stratigraphical distribution of the vertebrate fauna I shall have a further 
opportunity to discuss the views put forward by Merriam and Wiman with regard to the 
vertebrate fauna. 
Finally in 1916 Diener (1916, pp. 412—424) grouped the circumpolar Triassic for¬ 
mations — including those in Alaska and British Columbia — into a «Boreales Reich», 
and he says that the fauna in this indicates the existence of a communication of the 
