Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 6 (1902).djvu/10

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iv
preface.

might come in contact as correspondents to 'The Zoologist,' and thus make the Journal still more recognized as the record for zoological observations.

If last year was "an Okapia year," the principal zoological revelation of 1902 has also appertained to the Mammalia. We refer to the palæontological discoveries made by Dr. C.W. Andrews in a Pliocene deposit on the Wadi-Natrun, Egypt. The specimens found are the first evidence of the actual inhabitants of an early tertiary Ethiopian continent, the existence of which, though suspected on various grounds, had never been proved. Already this discovery has cleared up several important questions of geographical distribution, and has also shown definitely the point of origin of the Proboscidea and some other groups. Palæontology is not solely a section of Geology, as is too frequently held; it cannot be divorced from Zoology. Palæontology is Zoology studied by the light of Geology, and thus comes within the scope and purpose of this Journal.