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Excerpt from The Environment of Vertebrate Life in the Late Paleozoic in North America: A Paleogeographic Study The author has been led to attempt this somewhat elaborate discussion of the environment of life in the latter part of Paleozoic time by many considerations. Two, however, have been dominant: (1) He has for many years been concerned with a study of the vertebrate life of the period here discussed and has, as a preliminary to more extensive work, recorded the results of his work on the morphology and surroundings of that form of life in the publications of the Carnegie Institution of Washington and elsewhere. This work, dealing more fully with the conditions under which certain groups had their inception, development, and decadence is a direct outcome of the previous work, and, it is hoped, the first of a series which shall embrace a discussion of this period of time wherever its records occur. (2) As the author has carried his work to the broader questions which have developed he has become increasingly aware of the lack of agreement as to the content of paleogeography and the method of procedure in solving the various problems which arise. This publication has become, in consequence, in part an attempt to crystallize in some measure our ideas of the meaning and methods of paleogeography. The chapter upon the elements of a paleogeographic problem is an effort to set forth in orderly form the principles upon which such work should be concluded and the matter that should be treated. It is the result of the direct question which the author put to himself: What are the things that I should keep in mind when attacking a paleogeographical problem in the field? The size to which the answer speedily grew was somewhat appalling, but served as a very vivid illustration of the need for just such an analysis, primarily for the guidance of workers in the beginning of their labors. To such workers the chapter on the elements of a paleogeographic problem is especially addressed. It is perhaps needless to state that to the author the term paleogeography involves a far more complex concept than is usually recognized by writers upon zoogeographical or paleogeographical (sic) subjects. For the discussion of the content of paleogeography the reader is referred to the chapter on the elements of a paleogeographical problem; it may be permitted to quote here a paragraph from that discussion: "Paleogeography is the geography of past time and is far wider in its scope than a mere record of the extent of a bed or a formation, or the distribution of animals or plants in any period of time. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.