116 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 



With tlie actual specimen in hand Ramsay was unable to 

 decide this point, and yet from the inspection of a photograph 

 only, Baur definitely pronounced on the presence of a mesoplastron. 

 His conclusions are quite wrong, there is no such plate ; an 

 incurvation of the marginal being responsible foi- the appearance 

 in the illustration. My photograph, published on PI. xxiv., fig. 2, 

 very clearly shows the exact condition. I may mention that the 

 carapace and plastron have not been separated, and are illustrated 

 in natui'al connection. The sutures also have not been artificially 

 emphasised- 



Dimpnsions : — 



Carapace — length ... ... 430 mm. 



bi-eadth ... ... 330 



Plastron— length ... ... 320 



„ breadth ... ... 272 „ 



Skull— length ... ... 123 



„ „ basal ... 93-6 ,, 



„ width ... ... 75-0 ,, 



,, ,, interoi-bital ... 34*7 ,, 



1st Vertebra, length of centrum ... 14-3 ,, 



•>nd 27-2 



3rd „ „ ... 29-2 „ 



Hth ^ „ „ ... 10-5 „ 

 1st Vertebra, width outside 



posterior zygapophyses. . . 27 "9 ,, 



■ln(\ „ „ „ ... 23-6 „ 



3rd „ „ „ ... 26-1 „ 



-Sth „ ,, „ ... 26-0 „ 



Dorsal W evtahviS: in situ ... ... 278-0 ,, 



In reading the pi'oofs Di. Ramsay oveilooked some vagaiies of 

 the piinter. The genus is rendered as Carettochelys, but associated 

 with the species it reads Carettocchdyx, while on the only other 

 occasion on which the word is used it appears as Carretochelys. 



The author of the species i-eferred it to the family Tiionychidae 

 and suggested that it formed a link between the river tortoises 

 and the sea turtles. In laising the genus to family rank 

 Boulenger assumed that it was a Pleurodiiun because, all then 

 known Papuasian and Australian Chelonians belonged to that 

 division. Characters of the neural bones, and plates on the fore 

 limbs were also considex'ed to point in that direction. Baur 

 thoroughly reviewed the situation and rejected the Pleurodiran 

 nature of the genus. He considered that the Carettochelydidge, 

 to which he assigned both Pseudotrionyx a,iid Carettochelys " came 

 from a group of tortoises related to the stock from which 



