1 70 AMPHIBIA AND PISCES OF THE PERMIAN OF NORTH AMERICA 



tubercles of ganoine on the posterior parts of the superior surface of the 

 skull. These are seen on the sides of the surface, and are quite small, not 

 numerous, and of various sizes and shapes. They resemble shining seeds. 

 In E. nitidus these points are wanting, but there are rugosities on the post- 

 frontal and pterotic regions of a radiating character, not found in E. cicer- 



onius. 



"Measurements. m 



"No. I. Length of skull to occiput above (muzzle worn) 0.069 



Interorbital width 014 



No. 2. Length of osseous base of cranium (parachordal) 039 



Length of open median groove 022 



Width of base at parachordals 036 



Width of groove at apices of parachordals on 



Width of foramen notochordse 0095 " 



ACTINOPTERI. 



Genus SPH/EROLEPIS Fritsch. 

 Sitzungsb. k. bohm. Gesell. Wiss., 1877, p. 46. 



In 1877 (22) Cope described a small dentigerous plate which he con- 

 sidered, with evident doubt, "a pharyngeal, pterygoid, palatine or half of 

 the vomerine element" of a Crossopterygian, and referred it to his genus 

 Peplorhina as a new species, P. arctata. 



In 1882 (31) he abandoned this interpretation and declared the element 

 to belong to a theromorphous Saurian. 



In 1900 (11) Case examined this element and wrote concerning it that 

 while it "certainly has much the appearance of the small teeth which occur 

 in the roof of the mouth in certain of the Cotylosauria and may very possibly 

 belong there"— still a second specimen of this dentigerous plate (University 

 of Chicago, 6512) which was quite perfect, and with which the first entirely 

 agreed, was of undoubted Crossopterygian origin and hence Cope's original 

 interpretation was correct and his name Peplorhina arctata should be 

 retained. 



A third dentigerous element of the same kind was obtained by Prof. 

 Case on a recent collecting trip to Texas. This element (fig. 54_a) is a frag- 

 ment of a larger plate which was covered with denticles quite like those of 

 Cope's type specimen; and it apparently represents the same genus. Prof. 

 Case also collected a small fragment with conical teeth (fig. 54 b), of either 

 the mandible or the maxillary, which probably also belongs to the same form. 



In regard to their relationship: it seems to the writer that these ele- 

 ments agree quite well with the type of teeth figured by Professor Fritsch 

 in his genus Trissolepis (Fauna der Gaskohle, iii, pi. 109, fig. i; pi. no, 

 figs. I and 2) — a form he had previously named Spharolepis and which name 

 should be retained, because of priority. 



In view of this identification of the elements from the Permian of Texas 

 with Sphcerolepis of the Permian of Bohemia, the names Spharolepis Fritsch 

 and Peplorhina Cope become synonymous; Peplorhina has priority, but 

 for the following reasons it should not be retained, being an insufficiently 

 defined genus. 



Peplorhina was established by Cope in 1873 on fragmentary material 

 from the Coal Measures of Ohio with P. anthracina as the type species.* 



* Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., 1873, p. 343. 



