Bulletin 3. The flora of the Raritan Formation, 1911 - State of New ...

BOTANICAL CHARA C"PER. 4 I
in such an environment if they were reintroduced, at least the
only adverse factor would be the pressure of a more complex
flora. This, incidentally, seems to have been the ancient factor
which largely explains their present distribution.
With regard to the climate of the Raritan, the data for forming
any adequate opinion are altogether insnffieient. Although }Viddringto_t,ites
and J_renetopsis suggest a certain amount of aridity,
this is overwhelm_ngly opposed by the ferns and cycads and a
host of other forms. The climate w_/s certainly more uniform
than at present, both as regards seasonal changes an4 zonal differentiation.
When large numbers of identical species range from Greenland
through southern New England, New Jersey, Maryland,
and the Carolinas to Alabama, and when we find identical Dakota
Group forms in Minnesota and Kansas and then in Texas, and
then in the Upper Cretaceous of Patagonia, it would seem that
the proof that Cretaceous climate was very different, as a whole,
from modern climate rested on a very secure fouhdation.
NEW JERSEY GEOLOGICAL SURVEY