246 Hermann v. Meyer's Falceontological Notes. 



ground in search of food. The formation at Moskau also 

 consists of a fine laminated mass resembling brown coal, con- 

 taining fishes, infusoria, and plants of species still living in 

 the neighbourhood. I would also draw attention to an ob- 

 servation recorded in my Palceontologica, p. 540, according 

 to which the Elephas occurred, with remains of the ox, stag, 

 fishes, shells, and plants, in a turf-like diluvial bed at Witti- 

 gendorf, near Sprottan. All these places are only the natu- 

 ral abodes of the ancient elephant, where it found its food, 

 consisting of species of plants, which were not distinct from 

 those that still flourish in these localities. Such facts refute 

 the groundless hypothesis that the remains of elephants 

 were transported by great floods from distant regions to the 

 places where they are now found ; or that the species was 

 only enabled to exist in them by the influence of external 

 causes, or great changes in climate. They also testify to the 

 truth of a view which I have long adopted, that there is some 

 internal cause of this phenomenon, through which, even in 

 historical times, the extinction and geographical distribution 

 of species have been limited. Goldfuss, in his work on the 

 Archegosaurus, describes the skull of an animal from the 

 stone coal-formation of Heimskirchen near Kaiserlautern, 

 which he names Sclerocephalus, as that of a fish. It seems 

 to me to have more the resemblance to that of the Labyrinth- 

 ddonts than even the Archegosaurus, and, consequently, may 

 as well as this genus be added to the Saurians. 



Professor E. Schmid of Jena has recently entrusted to me 

 his whole collection of fossil vertebrate animals from the 

 muschelkalk of that district. To it were added two new spe- 

 cies of ammonites from the celestine strata in the lower 

 muschelkalk at Wogan ; one of them is a very beautiful spe- 

 cies, which I have named A. (Ceratites) Woganensis. It is 

 nearest the A. (ceratites) enodis, Quenst., but is smaller, and 

 the back is not arched but acute, thus giving a different charac- 

 ter to the sides ; it is perfectly smooth, and even the sutures 

 do not agree with those of the species compared with it. 



The remains of saurians in this collection formed a very 

 acceptable addition to my " Monograph of the Saurians of 

 the Muschelkalk.'' Previously, I only knew from the vicinity 

 of Jena those remains which Count Munster had received 



