BY PROFESSOR STEPHENS, M.A., F.G.S. 933 



present known in the Australian province. We have no Newts or 

 Salamanders, nor any Blindworms ( Ccecilia) at present, nor have 

 we any fossil records of their previous existence. But we have 

 now two distinct types of Labyrinthodonts from Australia, one — 

 flothriceps, described by Professor Huxley, from a skull, of which 

 the locality is unknown, except that the fossil was found somewhere 

 in Australia. The other — the plate now before us. 



It is clear that during the period when these animals made their 

 way into this region, there must have been an unbroken land 

 communication between India and Australia ; and it seems likely 

 that it was during this time that Ceratodus, and perhaps Osteo- 

 glossum, immigrated. Ceratodus and Mastodonsaurus are found 

 constantly associated in beds of the same age. 



Perhaps the ancient land-connection between N.E. Australia, 

 Lord Howe Island, Norfolk Island, New Zealand, New Caledonia, 

 and which extended to Indo-Malaya, as has been beautifully shown 

 by Mr. Wallace in his "Island Life," may have been severed in very 

 early Mesozoic times. And it is possible that some of our singular 

 forms of life, recert and fossil, may have been introduced at an 

 earlier period than is generally thought probable. Indeed I think 

 that) the presence of Megalania in both Australia and Lord Howe 

 Island, and the relationship of the New Zealand Hatteria to 

 Hyperodapedon, together with all the remarkable peculiarities of 

 the Australian Fauna, seem to point in that direction. 



Although any exact determination of the true character of our 

 interesting discovery is not under present circumstances possible 

 in this quarter of the globe : yet it may be of some service, in 

 case of similarly happy accidents in the future, to indicate the 

 principal sources from which information as to the ancient habitats 

 and forms of Labyrinthodonts may be obtained. And first there 

 are the two reports edited by Mr. Miall, and published in the 

 Reports of the British Association for 1873 and 1874, which 

 contain a summary of everything known up to that time. Later 

 information as to the bibliography of the subject will be found 



