580 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



posed, differs from its relatives in the presence of a pair of oval 

 vacuities, on each side of the inner wall of the lower jaw, com- 

 parable to those of a crocodile, whilst it is further distinguished 

 by the uniform character and shortness of its teeth. It is 

 assigned to the family Labyrinthodontidce. Classical scholars will 

 assuredly regret that the genus was not named Herpetosuchus. 



In the same serial Mr. Moodie {op. cit. vol. xl. pp. 429-33) 

 records a third specimen of a stegocephalian salamander {Enmicr- 

 erpeton parvum) from the Carboniferous of Illinois in which the 

 intestinal tract is preserved. The new specimen is larger and 

 more developed than either of the two previously described. 

 It is somewhat remarkable that all three appear to be females 

 and that not one shows any traces of branchiae. In the new 

 specimen the intestine is longer and more convoluted than in the 

 others, lying in five longitudinal folds and ending in a cloaca, 

 near which are impressions of two glands, provisionally regarded 

 as the termination of oviducts. Enmicrerpeton is a member of 

 the group Branchiosauria. In this communication Mr. Moodie 

 likewise describes a microsaurian from the same formation, 

 referred to the genus Amphibamus, as A. thoracatus. 



In Europe a new species (B. tener) of the genus Branchio- 

 saurus from the Rothliegendes of North-Western Saxony has 

 been described by Mr. G. Schonfeld in the Abhandlungen Ges. 

 Isis for 191 1, p. 19. It is specially characterised by the gills 

 persisting at least to a late period of life, by the slenderness of 

 the bones of the middle of the roof of the skull, the presence of 

 teeth on the vomers and palatines and in the young state on the 

 pterygoids, likewise by the small scales being marked with a 

 radiating sculpture and with concentric growth-lines. 



In connection with the above-mentioned paper on the ichthyo- 

 saurs of the Spitzbergen Trias, it is interesting to note that 

 Mr. C. Wiman {Bull. Geol. Inst. Upsala, vol. ix. pp. 34-40) has 

 likewise recorded labyrinthodont remains from the same locality 

 and formation ; thereby proving that this remote northern island 

 enjoyed at that date a comparatively mild climate. 



One of the most important pieces of work of the year is the 

 systematic and morphological survey of the stegocephalians of the 

 New York district, forming the chief part of Prof. Case's Revision 

 of the Amphibia and Pisces of the Permian of North America, 

 published as a quarto volume of 179 pages, with a large number 

 of plates, by the Carnegie Institution of Washington. The 



