Page:Synopsis of the Exinct Batrachia and Reptilia of North America. Part 1..pdf/78

 72 THE EXTINCT BATRACHIA, REPTILIA In. Lin. Length, " to middle of deltoid crest, 6 1 8. 8.5 Width of head, 1 7. CI shank at middle, cg condyles, 8.5 17.5 A mass of induarted marl, with vivianite and oxide of iron from Monmouth Comity, N. J., submitted to me by Prof. G. H. Cook, contains the posterior part of the cranium of this species, with cervical, dorsal, lumbar and caudal vertebra, dermal plates and corticoids. The individual was immature, as shown by the non-anchylosis of the centrum of the atlas, the neural arches, etc. The conical has the small hypapophysis composed of two small separated tubercles slightly prominent. The dorsal, with a prominent hypapophysis which is trineate in front and at the end, has the round cup characteristic of this species and the H. tenebrosus. The dermal plates arc large, elongate-quadrate, considerably exceeding the frontal region in width. Their fossae are in some deep, wider than the interspaces, in others smaller, the plate with a broad smooth bevelled border. The cranium exhibits the specific and generic characters very well. The muzzle is broken off at the anterior extremity of the pre-frontal bone, showing that there is no0foramen as in Thoracosaurus. The acute posterior extremities of the nasals remain. At the anterior border of the orbits the lachrymal is wider than the pre-frontal, and the pre-frontal wider than the frontal. The pre-frontal suture does not extend further back than opposite the middle point of the diameter of the orbit, No part of the orbital margins are everted, except for a shorter distance on the malar bone. The temporal or crota-phite fossae are of about the same area as the orbits. The width separating them is very little less than one-half the distance between the orbits. The anterior wall of the foramen is not quite vertical as in H. tenebrosus, nor very oblique as in another species. The sculpture is less marked than in the latter, and thongh it would become perhaps more profound with age, it is quite different in pattern from these. There are small pits near the orbital margins, and shallow grooves which incline backwards towards the median line, which is almost smooth. There are no grooves or pits on the interparictal region. In Il. obscurus there are large deep pits all over the frontal, which is concave, and broad smooth margins and a median line of pits on the parietal bone. In the the third species (figured by Leidy Cret. Rept., II., 8,) the pits are more numerous and the interparietal wider, and with marginal grooves. The ante-rior face of the crotaphite fossa is very oblique, or thickened inwards below, while it is vertical in the H. obscnrus. Postfrontal Frontal Parietal suture, width. width. teidth. H. brevispinis, .52 .6 1.23 H. obscurus, .8 °_. .55 H. ?sp., .7 1.93 .68 The surfaces of the malar, postfronto-parietal and post-temporal arches are marked with distant shallow pits. The superior concealed insertion surfaces of the snpraoccipital are largely exposed, and rugose. The basioccipital, sphenoid and ptcrygoids are more or less exposed. The first is vertical, with latero-inferior processes directed upwards. The sphenoid has a very narrow exposure, lint this is horizontal. The posterior-inner processes of the pterygoid lie closely apprcssed to the sphenoid and basioccipitallaterally. This arrangement is much as in the living Gavialis gangeticus. The posterior flares are more anterior, however, and the septum not completed. Their plane is perhaps a little above that of the orifice of the eustachian tubes. The lower extremity of the basi-occipital, has a well-marked posterior keel.