50 AMERICAN PERMIAN VERTEBRATES 



table of the skull, where a chip had broken away from the nodule. 

 The tail in part was in a protuberance of the nodule that had been 

 broken off, and was not recovered; I doubt not that a diligent 

 search in the vicinity later will be rewarded by even this part of 

 the skeleton. Hidden in this nodule, which showed but little 

 erosion from the rain and frost, the skilful preparation of Mr. 

 Miller has revealed a very nearly complete skeleton in closest 

 articulation from the skull to the sixth caudal vertebra. The 

 animal was doubtless fossilized in a prone condition, since the 

 spinal column has an undulating curve as pressed downward from 

 the apparently upward convex curve it had in the recent skeleton; 

 the tail was curved downward to the end of the ischia, like that of 

 a dog, the horizontal position beginning with the sixth caudal 

 vertebra; and it is this part which is lost. The pectoral girdle is 

 nearly in position, the right scapula and clavicle pressed slightly 

 forward, the head turned slightly in the same direction. The 

 right arm, fully articulated, lies close to the side of the body, 

 directed backward, the hand bones more or less intermingled with 

 the bones of the right foot. The left front leg was flexed at the 

 elbow and turned forward; its metacarpals alone are preserved. 

 The pelvis also lies quite in position below the last lumbar, the 

 single sacral and the first four caudal vertebrae, the parts all in 

 close articulation, save the right ilium, which is very slightly 

 separated at the ischiadic suture. Both femora are in close articu- 

 lation in the acetabula, directed forward, upward, and a little 

 inward, and quite alike on the two sides. And both the forelegs 

 are closely articulated with their respective femora, as are the 

 individual bones with each other on each side. Both feet evidently 

 lay close by the sides of the body originally, but with the col- 

 lapse of the abdomen they have been dragged somewhat away 

 from the ends of the leg bones. 



No attempt has been made to free any of the bones, nor could 

 they be separated without danger, since they are rather soft in 

 texture, with a thin, white outer layer that easily breaks away, 

 and many of the bones, especially those of the skull, have this 

 layer divided by many delicate cracks, as though the skeleton had 

 been more or less exposed to the atmosphere before fossilization 



