290 ANNUAL OF SCIEXTIFIC DISCOVERT. 



•feet are strong, and admirably adapted for walking; in going 

 from the gallinules to the rails, to Tnhonyx and Ocydromus, we 

 come by degrees to the form of foot presented by this fossil. It 

 is a transition form, one of tiie rail family adapted for an essen- 

 tially terrestrial existence. The wings were rudimentary, and 

 their feathers too little resistant for purposes of llight. The ex- 

 tmction of this bird must be attributed to man and the animal spe- 

 cies connected with him. It is interesting to observe that the 

 Aphanapteryx, living in Mauritius till recently, shows the close 

 relation between the fauna of these isolated regions and tiiat of 

 the Australian region, and also its complete separation from the 

 fauna of the African continent. 



NEW FOSSIL REPTILES. 



Prof. O. C. Marsh (*' Amer. Journ. Science," Nov., 18G9) de- 

 scribes several new Mosasauroid reptiles from the green-sand of 

 New Jersey, and a new fossil serpent from the tertiary of the 

 same State. lie states that a striking difference between the rep- 

 tilian fauna of the cretaceous of Europe and America is the preva- 

 lence in the former of remains of lehthvosaurus and Plesiosaurus, 

 which here appear to be entirely wanting ; while the Mosasauroids, 

 a group comparatively rare in the Old AVorld, replace them in this 

 country, and are abundantly represented both in genera and spe- 

 cies. He describes many new forms of this peculiar type of rep- 

 tilian life, ranging in length from 75 to 25 feet ; his genus Ealisau- 

 7~us has well marked ophidian affinities. He adds, " The earliest 

 remains of Ophidia both in Euroi)e and this country have been 

 found in the eocene, and nearly all the species from strata older 

 than the post-pliocene appear to be more or less related to the 

 constricting serpents. Remains of this character are not uncom- 

 mon in European rocks, but in this country two species only, one 

 founded on a single vertebra, have been described hitherto, and 

 both of these were discovered in the tertiary gieen-sand of New 

 Jersey. An interesting specimen from the same formation, re- 

 cently presented to tlie Museum of Yale College, indicates a third 

 species, much larger than either of the others, in fact superior in 

 size to any known fossil ophidian, and not surpassed by the largest 

 of modern serpents." This species, which he calls Dinophis gran- 

 dis, was probably not less than 30 feet in length, a sea-serpent 

 nllied to the boas of the present era. The paper concludes as fol- 

 lows : " Tiie occurrence of closely related species of large serpents 

 in the same geological formation in Europe and America, just 

 after the total disappearance in each country of 3Iosasnurus and 

 its allies, which show such marked ophidian affinities, is a fact of 

 peculiar interest, in view of the not improbable origin of the 

 former type ; and the intermediate forms, which recent discoveries 

 have led pala3ontologists familiar with these groups to confidently 

 anticipate, will doubtless at no distant day reward explorations in 

 the proper geological horizon." 



