Abstract
READERS versed in the literature of petroleum will recognise in this book the author of “Fishes the Source of Petroleum”, published some nine years ago, who now reappears with an extensive thesis of oil origin in which metanemerteans, invertebrate fresh-water animals of widely dispersed occurrence, and apparently related conodonts, are invoked as fundamentally contributive mother substance. The argument is that life originated and thrived in fresh-water areas, spreading both landward and seaward; of this life, the most abundant group was the metanemerteans, the representatives of which are now found in fresh and salt water and moist land-surfaces. Certain strata yield conodont teeth, closely resembling pharyngeal teeth of the metanemerteans, in association with prolific oil pools. By focusing attention on environments, as illustrated by three oil-bearing formations chosen in North America, it is shown that seismic and volcanic phenomena intervened in the evolution thereof.
The Quantity and Sources of our Petroleum Supplies: a Review and a Criticism.
By Prof. J. M. Macfarlane. Pp. xiv + 250. (Philadelphia: Noel Printing Co., Inc., 1931.) n.p.
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The Quantity and Sources of our Petroleum Supplies: a Review and a Criticism. . Nature 130, 832 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/130832a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/130832a0