Evening star., 1937-12-30
SEA RETREAT SLOW
IN CAPITAL AREA.
Biologists Told of Evidence
of Marine Life 100000
Years Ago.

Proof that the entire area now occu-
pied by Baltimore and Washington
was under the sea Is late q 10000, 900
years aeo--a mere minute in aeoloeic
tinne-was laid today before the Geo.
logical Society of America. which to-
day completed its 5Oth annual meetink
at the Washington Hotel.
New evidence obtained during field
work In the area late this fall by DR..
N. H. Darton of the United States
Geological Survey that silts and sand,
proved to have been deposited In the
sea. occur at higher levels on the con-
tir1ent than the two cities, was re-
vealed today in the abstract of a paper
read before the society.
Fossils In these sediments are unde-
niably those of organisms which are
known to have lived in the sea at that
time. DR.. Dartons paper revealed.
These sediments occur a. they were
deposited, covering parts of the Pied
mont area, which stretches from the
two cities to the Blue Ridge, and show
the Atlantic Coast at that time existed
somewhere west Of the National Capt.
tai and the populous Maryland me-
tropolis.
Land Linked Continents.
And while fish played and clans
burrowed where now stand the Capitol
Building and the skyscrapers OF Balti-
more, Asia and North America were
linked by a land bridge where Bering
Strait now is. Evidence OF this fact
comes from discovery in the bed Of an
ancient lake in shantune Province,
China. Of animal bones and plant i'm
pressions which show the fauna and
fora Of Eastern Asia as late as 49,
100000 years ago were similar, If not
Identical, to those of Western North
America. The bones included those
Of primitive deer, rhinoceroses and
cats
This discovery. described today be-
fore the society by DR.. Ralph W.
CLANCY Of the Carnegie Institution OF
Warrington. supports the theory that
primitive North American mammals
and plants migrated here from Asia,
They have since become widely diver
gent, he pointed out.
In the few million years prior to the
great North American glacial epochs,
the great upheavals on the Western
North American coast which formed
the Cascade and Alaskan mountain
ranges as q sequel to the building of
the Rocky Mountains farther east,
caused the area now occupied by Ber-
Ing Strait to be depressed in compen-
sation for the mountain uplifts.
Die Out in America.
Later. as the climate In both CONT
nents grew colder In preparation for
the great glacial epochs Of the more
recent geologic past, these forms be-
came extinct in North America and
may now be found only In a fossil
state in the sediments laid down IN
the west at that time, geologists have
pointed out.
Modern counterparts of many OF
the shantuns remains are now to be
found In warmer sections of Asia.
They have disappeared from North
America. however. and were probably
not present when primitive man
crossed Berins stfait to populate the
American continents at = much later
date. Dr.. Chaney's paper pointed out.
DR.. Chaney's concrete evidence of
this land link. postulated for some
years by geologists, came in direct
support to another paper delivered
before the vertebrate section of the
archaeological Society Of America at
the present meeting which gave evl-
dence mammals evolved from reptil-
ian forms in Northern Siberia instead
Of South Africa, as was previously
supposed
The paper. delivered by Drs. c. L.
Camp and 8. P. Welles, paleontolo-
gists, said that fossil remains OF the
"pelycosaurs missing link" group
between reptiles and rnanmals-found
IN Siberia had definitely been proved
older than comparable forms in South
Africa.
Siberia Finds Older.
They pointed out that. as remains
of this group have been found In
than the Siberian examples, 1t Ia
highly likely they migrated from Asia
to both the other continents over
similar land bridges.
Central Asia has been assigned by
science Is the most likely environment
for the evolution of modern man.
Man, however, did not migrate to
North America until long after the
land link used by lower animals had
disappeared, science postulates.
More than 2,400 feet OF silt have
been deposited on the Mississippi
River Delta since the close Of the
last Ice Age in North America, esti-
mated at $4,000 to 10000 years aso
Evidence Of this was placed before
the society today in the abstract Of
. paper read by title by DR.. Horace
q. Richards, expert on Gulf Coast
geology.
The abstract states fossil forms Of
life known to have existed along the
shores Of the Gulf Of Mexico when
great tongues Of Ice choked the upper
valley Of the Mississippi have been
found at this depth In the delta south
OF New Orleans, whereas the same
fossils are found along the coast above
SEA level on each side Of the delta area.
Al the tremendous weight Of silt on
the delta increased the earth's crust
sank under 1t a. fast as more sediment
swtrled down the river. A great part
Of the surface Of the land created BY
the Father Of Waters" Is now at
sea level and that under water is 1T
comparatively shallow depths.
From Alaska comes evidence the
channel Of the Yukon River, another
Of North Americas six largest rivers,
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