312 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



fibula. There are ten or twelve caudal vertebrae exposed, the 

 remainder of the series being buried in the stone ; the length of the 

 tail did not probably exceed an inch and a half. Dr. Mantell con- 

 siders that the original animal was a peculiar type of air breathing 

 oviparous quadruped, presenting in its osteology certain characters 

 that are found in Lacertians, combined with others that occur in the 

 skeleton of Batrachians. From the evidence afforded by a mere 

 impression of part of the skeleton, and in the absence of any knowl- 

 edge of the structure of the feet, scapular arch, bones of the cranium, 

 c., the natural affinities of the original cannot be precisely deter- 

 mined. Dr. Mantell therefore distinguishes tliis most ancient reptile 

 hitherto discovered by a name simply expressive of its remote 

 antiquity, viz., Telerpeton. 



The original reptile appears to have had a general resemblance in 

 its physiognomy to an acquatic salamander, with broad dorsal region 

 and longe'r limbs than the ordinary Tritons, fit alike for progression 

 on land, or through the water ; the tail appears to have been wide. 

 The entire length of the animal did not exceed six or seven inches. 

 By the discovery of these remains, and the impressions before 

 described, we have thus, for the first time, obtained unquestionable 

 evidence that two orders of the class Reptilia existed during the 

 Devonian epoch. 



ON THE SUPPOSED FOSSIL OVA OF BATRACHIANS OF THE 



LOWER DEVONIAN. 



IN connection with the discoveries above referred to, Dr. Mantell 

 has recently brought to notice certain fossils which abound in the 

 lower Devonian shales of Forfarshire, and are figured and described 

 by Sir. Charles Lyell, as probably the ova of gasteropodous mollusca. 

 These are clusters of small roundish carbonized bodies, which gen- 

 erally occur with remains of aquatic plants. With the exception of 

 the Cephalaspis and other ganoid fishes peculiar to the old red, no 

 other fossils but the ova have been found in these beds. The 

 resemblance of these organic remains to the carbonized spawn of 

 recent frogs, which Dr. Mantell had found in the inspissated mud of a 

 dried up pond, led him to suspect that they might be the fossil ova of 

 Batrachians ; and for reasons detailed at length in his recent memoir, 

 he is of the opinion, that if the fossil bodies of Forfarshire be of 

 animal origin, they are unquestionably referable to Batrachians, 

 allied to the Ranidcc or frog family, and not to Gasteropoda ; larger 

 ova occur singly or in pairs, and often attached to the foliage, (in 

 like manner as the eggs of our Tritons,) and these in all probability 

 belong to aquatic salamanders. In confirmation of his conjecture, 

 Dr. M. particularly dwells upon the fact that in the numberless strata 

 of shales, limestones, clays, &c., abounding in shells often in a state of 

 great perfection, with the ligament, epidermis, and even the soft parts 

 preserved in the state of molluskite, no ova had ever been detected ; 

 while in the shales of Forfarshire, which swarm with these e 



