The Mammal-Like Reptiles of South Africa: and the Origin of Mammals

Abstract

FOR many years the fossil reptiles found in the Karroo rocks of South Africa have excited great interest because they seem to include the ancestors of mammals, or at least show how some of the early reptiles may have passed into mammals. They date back to the Permian and Triassic periods, when mammals and birds must have had their beginning; and many of them are in so remarkable a state of preservation as whole skeletons that they are most satisfactory for study. Nearly all, however, are described in small scattered papers, and some are so strange that they have been interpreted in different ways at different times by various authors, so that it is not easy to obtain a good idea of the interesting phase of reptilian evolution which they represent. Dr. Broom has thus done good service to science by preparing an authoritative summary of our present knowledge of the subject, to which he himself has contributed the greater share during the past thirty years. With the aid of a grant from the Carnegie Trust he has published a handsome volume, which will be eagerly studied by all who are interested in current biological problems. The Mammal-Like Reptiles of South Africa: and the Origin of Mammals. Dr. Robert Broom. (Issued under the auspices of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and the Research Board, Union of South Africa.) Pp. xvi + 376. (London: H. F. and G. Witherby, 1932.) 25s. net.