Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 5 (1901).djvu/144

120 A provisional nomenclature was therefore proposed, in order to make work possible in those groups in which, as in the Corals, classification, except in its barest outlines, is premature. The author suggested that this consists (1) of the existing generic name (or, when that cannot be discovered, the family name); (2) of the locality in which each specimen has been found; (3) of a fraction which can be understood from the following illustration:—"Porites, Singapore $4⁄20$" would mean that there are twenty apparently distinct forms of Porites known to occur at Singapore, and the particular one referred to is that which was described and figured as No. 4. If a new Porites be found in the same locality, i.e. a Porites not immediately referable to any yet figured, its designation for reference would be "Porites, Singapore $21⁄21$." The formula which shall be ultimately agreed upon ought to be formally adopted.

at a meeting of the Zoological Society on March 5th, read a paper on some remains of extinct Reptiles obtained from Patagonia by the La Plata Museum. They included the skull and other remains of a remarkably armoured Chelonian, Miolania, which had previously been discovered only in superficial deposits in Queensland and in Lord Howe's Island, off the Australian coast. The genus was now proved to be Pleurodiran. There was also a considerable portion of the skeleton of a large extinct Snake, apparently of the primitive genus of the South American family Ilysiidæ. Along with these remains were found the well-preserved jaws of a large carnivorous Dinosaur, allied to Megalosaurus. Either the Dinosaurian Reptiles must have survived to a later period in South America than elsewhere, or geologists must have been mistaken as to the age of the formation in which the other reptiles and extinct mammals occurred. The discovery of Miolania in South America seemed to favour the theory of a former antarctic continent; but it should be remembered that in late Secondary and early Tertiary times the Pleurodiran Chelonians were almost cosmopolitan. Future discovery might thus perhaps explain the occurrence of Miolania in South America and Australia, in the same manner as the occurrence of Ceratodus in these two regions was already explained.