VERTEBRATE PALAEONTOLOGY IN 1910 683 



upper surface of the body. Many of these characters connect 

 the genus with Crocodiliis on the one hand, and Alligator and 

 Caiman on the other, although their preponderance is with 

 the first genus ; and there are also indications of affinity 

 with the extinct Diplocyiiodon. The position of the posterior 

 nostrils — intermediate between those of modern and Jurassic 

 crocodiles — is what might have been expected from the geological 

 horizon of the genus. 



Somewhat curiously, these early types of crocodilian palates 

 had been sketched by Dr. O. Jaekel, probably without seeing 

 Mr. Gilmore's paper, in an article on a new phytosaurian from 

 the Buntersandstein of Bamberg, as those which ought to 

 occur in the group intermediate between Triassic and modern 

 crocodiles. In this paper, Sitzber. Ges. naturfor. Freunde, 19 10, 

 pp. 197-229, the author describes, under the name Mesorhinus 

 fraasi^ a new type of parasuchian, differing from the European 

 Phytosaurus and Mystriosuchus by the nares being partially 

 in advance of the front border of the preorbital vacuity, although 

 not to the same extent as in the North American Palceorhinus. 

 In its comparatively straight profile the skull of the new genus 

 approximates to that of Phytosaurus. In the opinion of 

 Dr. Jaekel, the primary choanae of the parasuchian crocodiles 

 were covered by a membrane, and their opening thereby con- 

 verted into secondary choanse placed much farther back ; such 

 an explanation, affording, at all events, the best mode of explain- 

 ing the evolution and development of the modern crocodilian 

 palate. 



In connection with the foregoing, it may be mentioned that 

 in a paper published in the Centralblatt f. Min. Geol. u. Pal., 

 1909, pp. 583-92, on a huge skull oi Phytosaurus plieningeri from 

 the Swabian Trias, Dr. von Huene expresses the opinion that 

 the genus should not only also include P. kampfi, but likewise 

 the above-named Mystriosuchus planirostris, as well as the 

 American Rhytitodon carolinensis. 



A second addition to the list of reptiles from the Trias of 

 Elgin has been made during the year by Dr. von Huene in a 

 paper published in the Neues Jahrbuch f. Min. Geol. u. Pal., 1910, 

 vol. ii. pp. 29-62. The new form, which is described as repre- 

 senting a genus by itself under the name of Brachyrhinodon 

 taylori, is a small, short-skulled rhynchocephalian, probably 

 allied to the Upper Jurassic Continental forms. The paper 



