FURTHER TRACES OF MEIOLANIA IN N. S. WALES — ETHERIDGE. 41 



M. Owenii, and the angle of inclination they would probably form, 

 with the median line of the tail, is ditlerent. So far the conviction 

 of the Writer is that they are horn-cores of a Meiolania, probably 

 detached from a tail-sheath and possibly from a species differing 

 from those described. 



The late Sir R. Owen united in his description of the tail-sheath 

 of Meiolania Owenii, the two rings and cap* with a detached ring.f 

 He remarked! "The anterior ring .... may have come from a 

 more advanced part of the tail, but the peripheral border of the 

 hinder aperture .... tits that of tlie front aperture of the fore- 

 most of the coalesced group." Before me are excellent plaster 

 reproductions of these fossils, and with the highest possible respect 

 for the weighty opinion of the late celebrated Author, it appears to 

 me that this opinion has been too hastily formed. Judging from the 

 casts in question, made I believe, at the Natural History Museum, 

 London, portions between the two parts must be missing, for the 

 union is anything but a happy one. The conical processes on the 

 detached I'ing are much smaller than the anterior pair on the 

 coalesced portion of the tail-sheath, the curvature of the processes 

 is unlike, and to some extent the angle they form with the median 

 line of the tail is difi'erent. Now the assumption naturally would 

 be that the more anterior in position, the larger the processes ; 

 and for the reasons cited I am of opinion that the two portions 

 appertain to separate individuals. One other point may be 

 mentioned in support of this. In the tail-sheath of coalesced 

 processes the lateral pair almost pass insensibly below into the 

 ventral surface, but in the detached ring there is a considerable 

 interval of almost vertical walls between the preserved lateral 

 process and the ventral surface. 



We look forward to the day when, between the various National 

 Collections, it will be possible to put together a tolerably perfect 

 skeleton of this curious animal. 



Phil. Traas., clxxii., t. 65, f. 1-3 (-pars.) 



t Phil. Trans., clxxii., t. 65, f. 4. 



X Phil. Trans., clxxii., p. 547. 



