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^[[Geol]]

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In addition to the continuing project, two smaller problems were undertaken.  One, completed and published, concerns a beryciform fish from the Oligocene of Florida. The other, which will be ready for publication in the early fiscal 1960, also involves a beryciform fish deriving from Upper Cretaceous rocks of South Dakota, probably referrable to the family Trachichthyidae. These studies were considered of importance because of the key position attributed to the order Beryciformes as an intermediate stage of evolution between the primitive "isospondylous" teleosts and the more advanced acanthopterygian fishes, and because of their heretofore negligible fossil records in the Western Hemisphere.

Research of associate curator Dr. Peter P. Vaughn, during the summer and fall of 1958 involved study of the fauna of the Cutler formation of Upper Paleozoic age in southwestern Colorado, which he had undertaken with Dr. G. Edward Lewis of the U.S. Geological Survey. As a part of this investigation a field trip to the vicinity of Placerville, Colo. to study the physical characteristics of the formation was made in the company of Dr. Lewis. Dr. Vaughn made a study trip to the University of Michigan, the Chicago Natural History Museum and the University of Chicago to study Permian vertebrates in these collections in September, and while at the University of Michigan attended meetings of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology and the Society for the Study of Evolution.