246 AITNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



cently discovered a species of Ampyx, the first ever found in America, 

 which had been named A. Halli. 



Interesting Fossils. - - Dr. Burmeister, the curator of the National 

 Museum of Buenos Ayres, S. A., has recently in a voyage to the Solado 

 River secured a most unrivalled collection of the fossil remains of the 

 animals peculiar to South America during the tertiary period. Among 

 them he mentions skeletons, in a fine state of preservation, of the Mega- 

 therium, native horse (now extinct), Mylodon, Mylodon Robustus, Glyp- 

 todon, Toxodon, and Sedidotherium. 



On a minute vertebrate lower jaw. In the Annual Sci. Dis., 1863, 

 p. 229, notice was given of a jaw-like object y-L of an inch in length, 

 dredged up by Dr. Wallich near St. Helena, which he considered as 

 " evidence of the existence of a vertebrate animal measuring only -fa 

 inch in length ! " This has excited much discussion, several papers 

 having since been written upon the subject, and although its vertebrate 

 character has been fully disproved, there is much diversity of opinion 

 in regard to the true character of the object. C. Spence Bate (Ann. 

 and Mag., Dec., 1862) thinks it to be the claw of an amphipod. It 

 has also been suggested that it may be part of the lingual ribbon of a 

 gasteropod ; or part of the manducatory apparatus of a Rotifer. Mr. 

 Busk, in an illustrated paper in the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical 

 Science, for Jan., 1863, has given the most probable solution : that 

 the jaw figured by Dr. Wallich is one of the valves or jaws of a pedi- 

 cellaria of an Echinoderm, allied to Amphidotus. 



The Flying Lizards of the Mesozoic Period. Mr. H. Woodward, 

 an English paleontologist of note, states that up to the present time, 

 thirty-seven species of pterodactyles have been identified and described 

 from the strata of the Mesozoic Period ; how many individuals have 

 been discovered is not known. There is every reason, however, to be- 

 lieve that they were very abundant ; but we are not justified in sup- 

 posing that they altogether took the place of birds. The largest species 

 of pterodactyles, P. Sedgwickii, is supposed, from careful measure- 

 ment and fitting of its bones, to have been upborne on an expanse of 

 wings, not less than twenty-two feet from tip to tip. 



The Solenhofen Fossil. At a recent meeting of the Boston Society 

 of Natural History, Prof. Agassiz made a few remarks about the enig- 

 matic fossil which has been lately discovered at Solenhofen (see An- 

 nual of Scientific Discovery, 1863, p. 274) ; and, after passing in review 

 the opinions of Owen, of Meyer and of Wagner concerning the nature 

 of the animal, he inclined to the belief that this was but an additional 

 case of a synthetic type such as he had at first pointed out among fishes, 

 where there were fishes with reptilian characters. In this case it was 

 a synthetic type of a higher class a reptile with bird characters. 



The Remains of a Fossil Tortoise, of a new species, discovered by 

 M. Lennier, of Havre, were described by M. Valenciennes at a recent 

 meeting of the Academy of Sciences at Paris. A remarkable distinc- 

 tion in this tortoise is its possessing nine ribs, all those hitherto known 

 having but eight. 



Fossil Egg. A fossil egg has been found in the guano of the Isles of 

 Chinchas, at a depth of about forty feet. It was about the size of a 

 goose's egg, and weighed 252 grammes. Its texture was crystalline; 

 but the silky brilliancy of the fracture was lost on its exposure to the 



