fauna of Australia, it appears to me
to be very probable that it is essentially a remnant of the fauna of the
Triassic, or even of an earlier, age[7] in which case Australia must at
that time have been in continuity with the Arctogaeal continent.

[Footnote 7: Since this Address was read, Mr. Krefft has sent us news of
the discovery in Australia of a freshwater fish of strangely Palaeozoic
aspect, and apparently a Ganoid intermediate between _Dipterus_ and
_Lepidosiren_. [The now well-known _Ceratodus_. 1894.]]

But now comes the further inquiry, Where was the highly differentiated
Sauropsidan fauna of the Trias in Palaeozoic times? The supposition that
the Dinosaurian, Crocodilian, Dicynodontian, and to Plesiosaurian types
were suddenly created at the end of the Permian epoch may be dismissed,
without further consideration, as a monstrous and unwarranted assumption.
The supposition that all these types were rapidly differentiated out of
_Lacertilia_ in the time represented by the passage from the Palaeozoic to
the Mesozoic formation, appears to me to be hardly more credible, to say
nothing of the indications of the existence of Dinosaurian forms in the
Permian rocks which have already been obtained.

For my part, I entertain no sort of doubt that the Reptiles, Birds, and
Mammals of the Trias are the direct descendants of Reptiles, Birds, and
Mammals which existed in the latter part of the Palaeozoic epoch, but not
in any area of the present dry land which has yet been explored by the
geologist.

This may seem a bold assumption, but it will not appear unwarrantable to
those who reflect upon the very small extent of the earth's surface which
has hitherto exhibited the remains of the great Mammalian fauna of the
Eocene times. In this respect, the Permian land Vertebrate fauna appears
to me to be related to the Triassic much as the Eocene is to the Miocene.
Terrestrial reptiles have been found in Permian rocks only in three
localities; in some spots of France, and recently of England, and over a
more extensive area in Germany. Who can suppose that the few fossils yet
found in these regions give any sufficient representation of the Permian
fauna?

It may be said that the Carboniferous formations demonstrate the
existence of a vast extent of dry land in the present dry-land area, and
that the supposed terrestrial Palaeozoic Vertebrate Fauna ought to have
left its remains in the Coal-measures, especially as there is now r