ZOOLOGY. 643 



It may be remarked here that the name Zaglossus was the first given 

 to the genus later called by others Acanthoglossus, Proeckidna, and 

 Brnynia. The name was proposed by Gill, in 1876, in the Annual Rec- 

 ord of Scientific Discovery. 



Thcslnll of a Triassic 2lammal from South Africa.— A\iho\\g\i quite 

 numerous evidences of the existence of mammals in the Triassic and 

 Jurassic formations have been obtained, that evidence has been chiefly 

 limited to what could be obtained from the lower jaw and the dentition 

 thereof. The discovery of more or less entire skulls is therefore of 

 great interest. Such a find has been made in South Africa in the Trias 

 beds, distinguished by the richness of their reptilian remains. The 

 specimen in question is a nearly entire skull, wanting only the hinder 

 part, and measuring " about 3f inches in length from the broken end of 

 the parietal crest to the point of the united premaxillaries. The upper 

 surface shows the anchylosed calvarial portions of the parietals and the 

 frontal bones divided by a suture ; the contiguous angles of these four 

 bones are cut off, so as to leave an aperture, occupied by matrix, which 

 may be a fontanelle, or a pineal or parietal foramen. The frontals 

 form the upper borders of the orbits, which are bounded in front by the 

 lacrymal and malar bones, and were not completed behind by bone. 

 Each frontal is narrowed to a point at the suture between the nasal and 

 maxillary. The nasals are narrow, but widen in front to form the upper 

 border of the exterior nostril, which is terminal, and is completed by 

 the premaxillaries. The maxillaries are widened posteriorly, then con- 

 stricted, and again widened before their junction with the intermaxil- 

 laries." 



It will be thus seen that Professor Owen has not been able to obtain 

 characteristics of great importance, and the structure of the base of the 

 cranium, the roof of the mouth, and the interior of the skull remains 

 unknown. In fact merely superficial characters have been determined. 



The teeth of this form in the upper jaw consisted of a pair of large 

 round incisors, behind each of which was a smaller premaxillary tooth. 

 On each side were six molar teeth, " the first of which has a subtriangular 

 crown with the base applied to the second tooth." The latter and the 

 following teeth are " nearly similar, subquadrate in form, with the crowns 

 impressed by a pair of antero-posterior grooves, dividing the grinding 

 surface into three similarly disposed ridges, and each ridge is sei)arated 

 by cross notches into tubercles. Of these there are in the second to the 

 fourth molar inclusive, four tubercles on the mid ridge, three on the 

 inner ridge, and two on the outer ridge." Between the premaxillary and 

 molar teeth was "a ridged diastema," no canines being developed. 



The dentition thus indicated was different froiii that exhibited by re- 

 cent forms, resembling that of the Mkrolcstes from the Keui)er of Wiir- 

 temburg and the RhaBtic of Somersetshire and those of the Oolitic 

 genus Stcreognathm and the three forms apparently belonged to the 

 same family, the Stereognathidse. 



