68o SCIENCE PROGRESS 



Proc. Washington Acad. Set., vol. xii. pp. 1-25, who, after dis- 

 cussing the theory of the nearly upright position of the limbs 

 in sauropods, observes that he " is not willing to assert that 

 Diplodocus and its relatives never straightened out their legs, 

 thus lifting themselves well above the ground, and never 

 walked thus. Even crocodiles have been known to do this on 

 rare occasions, . . . What is disputed by the present writer is 

 that this was the customary attitude of the sauropods ; and 

 their great bulk makes it doubtful if it ever was assumed." 



Towards the close of the article the author expresses his 

 dissent from the opinion of Dr. von Huene that the sauropods 

 are descended from the theropod dinosaurs. According to his 

 own view, it seems much more probable that just the reverse 

 has been the case ; as " it appears more reasonable to suppose 

 that the Sauropoda were a more primitive stock than the 

 Theropoda, and that the latter were derived from the early 

 Triassic representatives of the former," 



In the Anat. Anzeiger, vol. xxxiii. pp. 401-405 (published in 

 1908, but not referred to in my review for that year), Dr. von 

 Huene discusses the prepubis of dinosaurs and other reptiles. 

 He is of opinion that this bone is a distinct pelvic element, 

 A pubis + a prepubis are found in ornithopod dinosaurs, 

 crocodiles, and birds. In crocodiles and the ceratopsian section 

 of the Ornithopoda the pubis is rudimentary, whereas in birds 

 it is the prepubis which aborts. Much the same condition 

 obtains in crocodiles and pterodactyles, in which the prepubis 

 becomes anchylosed to the other pelvic elements. The presence 

 of a prepubis is further evidence of the close affinity of the four 

 groups mentioned. 



Mere mention will suffice for a paper by Mr. P. Larkin, 

 Joiirn. GeoL, vol. xviii, pp, 93-8, on remains of a sauropod from 

 the Cretaceous of Oklahoma ; and the same course may be 

 adopted in regard to a note by Baron Nopcsa, Geol. Mag., 

 decade 5, vol. vii. p. 261, on the systematic position of 

 Tttanosaurus. 



On the other hand, more than ordinary interest attaches 

 to a paper by Dr. Smith Woodward, published in the Quart. 

 Journ. Geol. Soc, vol. Ixvi. pp. 111-14, on a skull of Megalo- 

 saurtis from the great Oolite of Minchinhampton, Gloucester- 

 shire. The special interest of the specimen, which is made the 

 type of the new species M, bradleyi, is the presence of a nasal 



