309 ) 



14. Description of a New Plesiosaur (Plesiosaurus capensis, 

 sp. nov.) from the Uitenhage Beds of Cape Colony. By C. W. 

 ANDREWS, D.Sc., F.R.S., of the British Museum (Natural 

 History). 



(Plate XVIII., text-Figs. 1-4.) 



IN the Annual Eeport of the Geological Commission of the Cape 

 of Good Hope for 1900 (1901) Messrs. Rogers and Schwarz* 

 announced the discovery of the remains of a Plesiosaurian reptile, 

 which were found by Mr. Schwarz in a cliff at Picnic Bush, in 

 the valley of the Zwartzkops River, between Uitenhage and the 

 sea. The deposit in which the fossil was. found is described as a 

 nodular clay-limestone, and belongs to the Sunday River beds of the 

 Uitenhage Series. The age of this series seems now to have been 

 fairly definitely settled by Dr. Kitchin f as the Upper Velangian and 

 Lower Hauterivian horizons of the Neocomian ; that is to say, corre- 

 sponding in age to some part, probably the upper, of the Wealden 

 beds of England. 



So far as I am aware, this is the first mention of the occurrence 

 of a Plesiosaurian in South Africa. The discovery is afterwards 

 again referred to in Rogers' and du Toit's " Introduction to the 

 Geology of Cape Colony," p. 331 (2nd ed., 1909). 



The specimens were entrusted to the late Professor H. G. Seeley 

 for description, but unfortunately he died before any account of 

 them had appeared. Afterwards, through the kindness of Dr. A. W. 

 Rogers, the material passed into my hands, and the present paper 

 contains the results of my examination of the remains. 



Originally the bones seem to have been embedded in hard matrix 

 at least to a large extent, but much of this has been successfully 

 removed, and a considerable parfc of the skeleton is now visible. 

 The parts preserved are skull, part of the mandible, some teeth, 



* Appendix I., Keport on the Survey of Parts of the Uitenhage and Port Eliza- 

 beth Divisions, p. 8. 



f Kitchin, Ann. S. African Museum, vol. vii. (1908), " The Invertebrate Fauna 

 and Palaeontological Relations of the Uitenhage Series," p. 21. 



