Page:Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 26.djvu/560

394 proceedings of the geological "society. [mar. 23, March 23, 1870.

Frederick Antony Potter, Esq., B.Sc, Assoc. Royal School of Mines; Cromford Derbyshire, was elected a Fellow of the Society.

The following communications were read : —

1. Notice of a Fragment of a Reptilian Skull from the Upper Cretaceous of Grunbach. By Dr. Emanuel Bunzel.

[Communicated by Prof. Huxley, F.R.S. &c] (Abstract.)

The bone described by the author was found by Prof. Suess in a coal-mine belonging to the Gosau formation at Grunbach, near Wiener Neustadt, from which Prof. Suess obtained numerous other bones also belonging to terrestrial reptiles.

The author stated that the reptilian character of the bone appeared at the first glance, as it shows a single condyle and a temporal fossa resembling that of a Crocodile ; but it has some peculiarities, such as the convexity of the occiput and its gentle passage into the roof of the skull, without forming an angle as in other reptiles, the transverse ridge in the occipital region, the want of sutures between the bones, the globular form of the condyle, the horizontality of the base, the ascending direction of the clivus, and the large brain-cavity, which render it impossible to refer the animal to which this bone belonged to any recognized order of Reptiles.

The known skulls of Dinosaurians have a steep occiput, and exhibit more of the Lacertilian type ; the fragment described by the author rather resembled that of a bird. The author consequently suggested the formation of a new order of fossil Reptiles, Ornithocephala, nearly allied to the Ornithoscelida of Prof. Huxley.

For the animal of which this fragment is the only known relic, the author proposed the generic name of Struthiosaurus.

2. On the Paleontology of the Junction Beds of the Lower and Middle Lias in Gloucestershire. By Ralph Tate, Esq., Assoc. Lin. Soc, F.G.S., &c.

[Plate XXVI.]

Previous to the writings of Messrs. Oppel and "Wright on the classification of the various members of the Lias, that portion of the system which intervenes between the great limestone series of the Lower Lias below and the Marlstone above was referred to the Lower Lias ; but these authors have drawn the line of demarcation between the Lower and Middle Lias through the mass of clays and shales which constitute the median portion of that system, the zone of Ammonites raricostatus being the uppermost member of the Lower Lias, and that of Ammonites Jamesoni the lowermost member of the Middle Lias. Now it has not been shown in any English publication that this separation harmonizes with the distribution of organic remains, and by the superficial reader the boundary-line may well be considered an arbitrary one, it will be my endeavour to establish the division of the Lower and Middle Lias as drawn by Oppel.