LEIDYOSUCHUS STERNBERGII, A NEW SPECIES OF CROC 

 ODILE FROM THE CERATOPS BEDS OF WYOMING. 



By Charles W. Gilmore, 

 Custodian of Fossil Reptiles, U. S. National Museum. 



The Division of Vertebrate Paleontology of the U. S. National 

 Museum has recently acquired from Mr. C. IT. Sternberg, of Law- 

 rence, Kansas, an unusually well-preserved crocodilian skull and 

 jaws associated with other parts of the skeleton. The specimen was 

 found by his son, Mr. Charles M. Sternberg, on the north side of the 

 Cheyenne River, in the Ceratops Beds of Converse County, Wyoming, 

 during the summer of 190!). 



Although there is abundant evidence of the existence of crocodiles 

 in these beds, well-preserved specimens are exceedingly rare. Such 

 fragmentary remains as have been found from time to time paleon- 

 tologists have usually referred to Crocodilus Jiumilis Leidy, a Judith 

 River species founded upon insufficient evidence, and as Hatcher" 

 has pointed out, "the simple conical teeth upon which the species 

 was based furnish no characters for the positive identification of 

 ot her material." 



The specimen considered here, I refer to the recently established 

 genus Leidyosuchus of Lambe, 6 which is founded upon specimens 

 from the Judith River Beds (Belly River) of Alberta, Canada. Even 

 though it occurs in a geological horizon of considerably later age, 

 no characters were detected which would justify more than its spe- 

 cific separation from Leidyosuchus canadensis Lambe, and I there- 

 fore take great pleasure in naming the species after the veteran col- 

 lector, Mr. C. II. Sternberg, whose devotion to paleontology has done 

 so much to further that science. 



a Bull. No. 257, U. S. Geol. Surv., L905, i>. 82. 

 bTmns. Royal Soc. Canada, vol. I, L908, pp. 219 244. 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. 38— No. 1762. 



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