The modern division of vertebrates into cyclostomata (Cyclostomata), fish (Pisces), amphibians (Amphibia), reptiles (Reptilia) and mammals (Mammalia), usual and satisfactory when reviewing the modern world of animals, is completely unsatisfactory and vulgar at the first attempt at distribution it on the world of living creatures of past geological eras. The question arises: is it not time to revise the old classification of vertebrates and build it on newer scientific foundations? The progress of research in the department of vertebrate paleontology has made the task of a new classification of the vertebrate group urgent. Taking this into account, the author presents the views of the Swedish scientist G. Säve-Söderbergh, which are set out in his article “Some points of view on the evolution of vertebrates and the classification of this group”, an archive for zoologists who claim pr. K. Svenska Vetenskapsakademien, Bd. 26, Stockholm, 1934 and in the accompanying table. Whatever the inadequacy of the classification proposed by Mr. Säve-Söderberg, it can, in the opinion of the author, provide the opportunity for a fruitful discussion of the problem, it also points to its insufficiently studied areas and thus contributes to the solution of this problem.
In 1931 and 1935, I managed to get acquainted with the remains of Mosasauria from two different areas where they had not yet been observed and where their finding, in addition to paleontological, is of great stratigraphic interest. One find in the Pechora region was made by Prof. A. A. Chernov in 1930 in the light gray sandstones of the Lemva River, the left tributary of the Usa River, which flows into the Pechora from the right. An exact determination of the genus and species is not yet possible. It should only be noted that the highly elongated cylindrical shape of the vertebral body is similar to the shape of the caudal vertebrae of North American Mosasauria. The paleontological interest of the find is undoubted: it promises to provide new, more complete remains of the skeleton of Mosasauria, and stratigraphically reliably determines the Upper Cretaceous age of marine sediments on the eastern slope of the Middle Urals.
The present work of G. Säve-Söderbergh, despite its modest title: “Preliminary note on Devonian stegocephalians from eastern Greenland,” sets out the contents of a very interesting study devoted to the description of finds of the oldest Tetrapoda known to date. It should be said that the discovery of reliable remains of them in the Devonian has long been eagerly awaited in the scientific world. The author was a member of the Danish East Greenland Expedition of 1931, which worked under the leadership of Dr. Lauge Koch and discovered the fauna of lobefins and other fishes in the Upper Devonian (layers of the upper red sandstone in the area of Mont Celsius on Ymer Island at 73° 10' N). . and 23° west longitude). The accuracy of age determination is certified by the works of the famous Swedish scientist E. Stenslö (see article).
