Investigations in South African Fossil Eeptilia and Amphibia. 71 



be made out among the sculpturing of the surface, and in this 

 connection I have made use of the facts given by Dr. Broom. The 

 specimen described by him seems to be a smaller representative 

 of the species than the Bloemfontein one ; but from the general 

 similarity and from the fact that all the known examples come from 

 the same locality, I think there can be no doubt as to their specific 

 identity. Compainson of the photograph of the Bloemfontein 

 specimen with the restoration of the skull given by Broom shows 

 that in the latter the snout is somewhat too long, the nostrils being 

 nearer the front of the skull. 



As preserved, the animal measures nearly 7 feet in length. There 

 are only five caudal vertebrae showing, so that the length may have 

 been nearly 8 feet in life, supposing that the tail was short as 

 in Eryops, 



The skull is moderately long with a rounded snout and practically 

 straight sides, flat, and broadest at the back. It has the pitting 

 characteristic of this genus and Eryops, the pits being roughly 

 circular in the middle of the bones and lengthening out towards 

 the edges. The otic notch is not large. The nasal-frontal region 

 is furnished with a median groove, and on either side is a bow-shaped 

 channel running from the plane of the back of the nostrils to that of 

 the front of the orbits, concave towards the median line. 



The greatest length of the skull is 580 mm., the greatest breadth 

 444 mm. The nostrils lie 33 mm. from the front of the snout, and 

 the orbits 308 mm. There is a small pineal foramen 407 mm. 

 behind the snout. The internasal width is 53 mm., the interorbital 

 width 57 mm. (Broom's specimen has an interorbital width of 

 50 mm.). From the orbit to the nostril the distance is 235 mm. 

 (Broom's specimen gives 203 mm.). 



No sutures can be seen in the preorbital region save parts of the 

 boundary of the prefrontal. This is a very large bone. Broom 

 says : " The frontal bones are long and narrow, and separated from 

 the orbits by the forward extension of the postfrontals, agreeing 

 in this with Archegosaurus. The prefrontal is very large, stretching 

 more than half-way to the nostril. The nasal bone is also very 

 large. The lachrymal is narrow and placed w r ell forward. The 

 jugal is large and forms about a quarter of the side of the head. It 

 only forms a small part of the orbital margin. Behind it is the large 

 prosquamosal, or, as it is more often called, the supratemporal. The 

 postorbital comes well down behind the orbit." 



In the Bloemfontein specimen it is possible to delimit most of 

 the posterior cranial bones, partly from the sutures and partly from 



