Page:Synopsis of the Exinct Batrachia and Reptilia of North America. Part 1..pdf/24

 20 THE EXTINCT BATRACHIA, REPTILIA CESTOCEPHALUS PECTINATUS, Cope. Bauropleura pectinata, Cope, loc. cit., 1808, 218. This speeies is represented by portions of the vertebral columns of four individuals. In two of these, vertebral eentra are discoverable, in one quite definitely. They are slightly constricted medially, and without ridge or process. The neural and haemal spines of superior and inferior lines are similar, and in the specimens uudistinguishable. The dilated portions form nearly equilateral triangles, which stand on moderately short pedicels. They are weakly ridged, and each ridge is prolonged into a narrow acute tooth, beyond the margin of which eleven may be counted on one of the best preserved. The longitudinal striae are terminated near the pedicel by two others which cross obliquely from each side and meeting present an appearance similar to an overlapping of each margin. The edges of the spines form a continuous line. As in the other species, there are no indications of other processes, nor of dermal scales. The smallest of the specimens shows that in front of the region furnished with the peculiar spines described, the body is furnished with a mass of bristle or hair-like scales. The grooved neural spines are slightly displaced anteriorly, and the bristle-like mass looks like a continuation of their striae, and it is not easy to find any line of demarkation between them. The serrate spines are further forwards on one side than the other. These linear wales were arranged as in other genera, in lines which converge forwards to the median line. They are somewhat obscured in the specimen, but it cannot be determined that they are continuous on the median line. Whether this is the posterior or anterior portion of the body cannot positively be determined from the specimen ; it is, however, most likely the posterior, for near the posterior portion of the striate surface a weak pair of limbs is given off on each side. On the right, a moderately stout femur is followed by a broken tibia and fibula., and by five slender, closely oppressed metatarsals. The last are about 2-5 as long as the space between them and the femur : beyond them a few slender phalanges are moderately distinctly defined. The tibia is more distinct on the left, but no tarsus or phalanges; some of the metatarsals are preserved here also. Length of limb to end of metatarsals equal to five vertebra in juxtaposition, measured along the edges of the neural spines. The limb has been slender, especially the hand. The above specimen enables me to assign as the ventral armature of this species a closely packed series of V-shaped grooves which lie in connection with an obscure vertebral column, on the block containing one of the typical specimens of this species. They are not continuous with any of the series exhibited on other parts of the block : some of these at least are the doublings of the slender animal, and this ventral portion has been displaced. The grooves are like the impressions of haemapophysial rods, vastly more numerous however than the number of vertebra ; they are really the dermal armature. Huxley figures a portion of this as on the block with the Urocordyhis wandesfordii, but does not refer it to a precise relation to the animal. A few well developed ribs are preserved with this portion, the only ones I can refer to this species. The vertebra are partly enclosed in matrix, partly impressions. The neural spines, though expanded anteroposteriorly, arc less elevated than in the caudal region, and have left no traces of their characteristic ribs or serration. The number of spines in the type specimens is six in a half inch ; in the smallest, just described, ten in the same distance. The height of the spine in the former 1.15 lines. MOISOPII I S, Cope. Loc. Cit. 1868, 220. This genus is established on remains represented by three specimens, which are two series of dorsal vertebrae with ribs, and a series of eaudals. One of the dorsal series embraees sixteen vertebra', the other fourteen, the caudal series, twenty-two. From its serpentine form this genus may be eompared with the Dolichosoma of Huxley, though a elose relation does not exist between them. In the Irish genus, the