9 2 



ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



the Pareiosauria Mr. Newton refers the last genus and species 

 of the present series of Elgin fossil reptiles under the name 

 of Elginia mirabilis. 



Nothing of this creature is known as yet but the skull ; 

 and, as the accompanying figures will show, a most bizarre- 

 looking skull it is, reminding us, as Mr. Newton observes, of 

 the head of the American Horned " Toad " (Phrynosomd) on 

 a large scale. The extreme development of " horns " on the 

 skull also recalls to us Professor Marsh's American Dinosaurian 

 genus Triceratops. The figures here given show, besides the 



FIG. 3. Side view of the skull of Elginia mirabilis, Newton, rather less than one- 

 half natural size, from a cast in gutta percha. Reduced from E. T. Newton's 

 figure, Plate XXXVII. Fig. I. Lettering as in Figs, i and 2. The lower 

 jaw is absent. 



extraordinary arrangement of horns, the covering in of the 

 temporal fossae, the pitted sculpture of the surfaces of the 

 external bones as in Labyrinthodontia and Crocodilia, and 

 the comparatively small teeth with their spatulate and 

 serrated crowns ; these teeth, also pleurodont in their arrange- 

 ment, strongly resembling those of the Lacertilian Iguana. 

 Mr. Newton considers that Elginia finds its nearest ally in 

 the South African Pareiosaurns, from which it also obviously 

 differs in the possession of largely developed horns, and in 

 the dentition ; the teeth of Pareiosaurus being said to be 

 implanted in sockets. The skull of Pareiosaurns is also 

 proportionally broader and more depressed, and there are 

 " mucous canals," which do not exist in Elginia. 



