VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY IN 1913 645 



ceous of Alberta, Canada, which is of more than ordinary 

 interest on account of being the latest representative of the 

 Sauropterygia at present known, the Edmonton beds being 

 separated from the Eocene Tertiary series only by another 

 set of Cretaceous rocks. Nearly related to the long-necked 

 Elasmosaurus, the new type has a neck of medium length, and 

 very short centra to the vertebrae ; the total length of the 

 vertebral column being about seven feet. The author gives 

 a synopsis of the chief structural features by which it is dis- 

 tinguished from five other genera of American plesiosaurians. 

 The plesiosaurians of the genus Murcenosaurus form the subject 

 of a paper by Dr. E. Koken, published in the Neues Jahrbuch 

 fiir Min. 1913, voi. i. pp. 101-15. 



The first portion of the above-mentioned " Catalogue of the 

 Marine Reptiles of the Oxford Clay" deals with the pliosaurs of 

 the genera Pliosaurus, Sitnolestcs, and Pelonenstes, of the skeletons 

 of some of which Dr. Andrews gives almost complete restorations. 



As skulls of ichthyosaurs which have escaped the effects 

 of crush are comparatively rare, considerable interest attaches 

 to an uncrushed specimen of Ichthyosaurus acutirostris, from the 

 Lias of Holzmaden, described and figured by Dr. E. Fraas in 

 the Jahresheft Verh. Naturkunde Wiirttemberg, 19 13, 12 pages. 



A large series of papers, chiefly from the pen of Dr. R. Broom, 

 on the mammal-like anomodont, or theromorphous, reptiles 

 of the Permo-Trias of South Africa, have appeared during the 

 year. Before considering those of the author just mentioned 

 reference may, however, be made to an ingenious attempt by 

 Miss I. J. B. Sollas and Prof. W. J. Sollas to solve some of 

 the problems connected with the structure of the skull of the 

 well-known genus Dicynodon by means of a series of sections. 

 The results of this investigation are embodied in a report pub- 

 lished in the Philosophical Transactions (ser. A, vol. cciv. pp. 201- 

 25). No analysis of such an extremely technical communication 

 can, however, be attempted on the present occasion, and it 

 must suffice to refer to a very interesting restoration of the 

 canals of the labyrinth of the internal ear. 



Brief mention may be made in this place of a paper by 

 Mr. D. M. S. Watson (Geol. Mag. decade 5, vol. x. pp. 388-93) 

 on the beds of the South African Karru series, which, although 

 mainly stratigraphical, deals to some extent with palaeontology. 



Among the series of papers by Dr. Broom reference may 



