84 Annals of the South African Museum. 



the palate, but fracturing of the specimen has shown one or two of 

 its features. The descending processes of the pterygoids are large. 

 As in Scylacops capensis and other Gorgonopsians the pterygoid 

 is closely united with the transpalatine, there being no evidence 

 of any foramen between them. The ascending pterygoidal plates 

 pass forward above the palatine. Superiorly the fused pterygoids 

 thin out into a plate slightly displaced from its true position, which 

 does not appear to meet the ethmoid, although the two bones may 

 have met further back. The ethmoid is a median element lying 

 vertically beneath the frontal suture, and separated from the upper 

 cranial wall. 



The palatine carries a few simple pointed teeth. 



Only the posterior half of the vomerine bone is seen. It descends 

 below the level of the front of the palatine, which ascends anteriorly 

 towards the top of the skull as a thin plate. Between this plate and the 

 vomerine bone is a distinct foramen. This bone is apparently single. 



The lower jaw is incomplete, but agrees in external characters 

 with that of Scymnocjnatlms. The dentary is very large, and its 

 posterior process rather more powerful than in the other Gor- 

 gonopsians. The angular is large. 



Ti/pe. Incomplete weathered skull. (S.A.M. Cat. No. 2754.) 



Locality. Abraham's Kraal, Prince Albert Division. 



Horizon. Beaufort Beds. (Pareiasaurus zone.) 



2. GORGONOGNATHUS LONGIFKONS, g. et Sp. 11OV. 



(Plate XIII., figs. 1, 3.) 



The skull about to be described is No. 2671 of the South African 

 Museum collection, and was collected at Dunedin, Beaufort West. 

 from a bed of sandstone 1^ miles east of the homestead. The top of 

 the snout and back of the temporal region are denuded of bone by 

 weathering, and the whole skull is somewhat distorted. The general 

 features of the skull are those of Gorgonops torvus, which occurs, 

 however, at a lower horizon : but the head is not quite so much 

 depressed, and is much larger than Owen's type. 



The maximum length of the skull was between 340 mm. and 

 350 mm. From the snout to the front of the orbit is 200 mm. 

 The basal length from the snout to the back of the occiput is 

 305 mm. The interorbital width is 77 mm., while the intertemporal 

 width was probably about 85 mm. 



The premaxilla is divided by a median suture. The septomaxilla. 



