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skulls from Queensland which he refers to a turtle from the 

 same State described by Sir R. Owen in 1882 and now known 

 as Notochelone costata. That the larger of these is correctly 

 identified seems a practical certainty ; and it serves to indicate 

 that the extinct genus is nearly related to the existing forms. 

 The smaller skull, however, is described as having sclerotic 

 bones in the socket of the eye — a determination which, if 

 correct, would at once show that the specimen is not chelonian 

 at all. It has, moreover, projections on the margins of the 

 jaw which have the appearance of being teeth. 



By far the most interesting chelonian described during the 

 year, however, is one from the Wealden of Westphalia, for 

 which Mr. T. Wegner proposes {Palceontographica, vol. lxviii. 

 pp. 105-32, pis. viii.-x.) the new generic and specific name 

 Desmemys bertelsmanni. iThis chelonian belongs to the extinct 

 Thalassemydidce or primitive marine turtles ; but so peculiar are 

 some of the features presented by its shell, that the author 

 is induced to review the whole question of the relationships of 

 that group and in the course of the discussion considers whether 

 the Thalassemydidce ought to be regarded as the ancestral type 

 of all other members of the order, as well as whether modern 

 chelonians pass through a thalassemyd stage in the course of 

 development. 



As being of considerable interest, reference may be made to 

 a paper by Mr. D. M. S. Watson, published in 1910 {Rep. Brit. 

 Assoc, for 1909, pp. 155-8), on a skull of the rare Triassic 

 rhynchocephalian Rhynchosaurus articeps, preserved in the 

 Manchester Museum. 



Another paper published in 1910 is one by Mr. N. Bogolubow 

 on remains of extinct sea-serpents or mosasaurians from the 

 Cretaceous of the government of Orenburg, Russia. It ap- 

 peared in the Bull. Ac. Imp. Sci. St. Petersbourg for 19 10, pp. 

 8-14. Dr. F. von Huene has also described (Neues Jahrbuch 

 filr Mineralogie, 191 1, vol. ii. pp. 48-50) a finely preserved 

 skeleton of the American Platecarpus coryphmis recently ac- 

 quired by the Tubingen Museum. 



Prof. S. W. Williston has again devoted much attention to 

 the reptiles of the American Permian, his first communication 

 during the year being one on a new family type of reptiles 

 from the Permian of New Mexico, published in the American 

 Journal of Science (vol. xxxi. pp. 378-98). This reptile, for 



