GEOLOGICAL PAPERS. 125 



Knight has given, in the frontispiece of the University Geological 

 Survey of Kansas, volume IV, a restoration of this turtle as he supposed 

 it to be, from the study of Cope and others. He makes the flippers three 

 times as long as the hind paddles. With a completely ossified cara- 

 pace, you may therefore be surprised to find tliat the hand in the turtle 

 before you (see plate XVIII), by actual measurement, is only three 

 and an eighth inches longer than the feet. The third finger is the 

 longest — sixteen and a half inches long; the fourth, fifteen and a 

 half; the second, fourteen; the first, nine a half, and the fifth, eight 

 and a half inches long. The second and third toes are twelve and 

 five-eighths; the fourth, twelve and an eighth; the fifth, eight and 

 an eighth ; the first, seven and a half inches long. Professor Willis- 

 ton has restored a limb of this species in the University of Kansas 

 from a lot of loose and scattered bones I collected some years ago ; 

 in the presence of this animal he was mistaken. The professor as- 

 sumed the position of a land turtle feigning death ; his limbs were 

 drawn within the marginal plates as far as the hands and feet, yet in 

 this position the distance between the ungual phalanges of the hands 

 is over eight feet. When stretched out at full length, with the great 

 horn claws added, the span would be nearly ten feet ; so that Cope 

 was about right in his estimate of this part of the skeleton. In the 

 neck and carapace there are twenty-three vertebra?, three feet and nine 

 inches long. There are also present three caudals, measuring five 

 inches more (see plate XIX). 



The first vertebra in the preserved series is the fourth cervical, ac- 

 cording to Case, as it is convex at each end. The others are concave 

 towards the head and convex towards the tail. The length of the rib 

 attached to the seventh and eighth vertebrae is twenty and a half 

 inches. As this is the only one at right angles to the column, it rep- 

 resents, with the vertebrae and ends of the marginal plates that ex- 

 tend beyond their distal ends, the widest part of the carapace. In 

 this individual it is forty-five and a half inches between these plates. 

 The ribs radiate from the right and left of this rib, like the spokes of 

 a wheel, giving a round outline to the carapace, as Case suggested, 

 though I think it was a few inches longer than broad. The carapace 

 consists only of the ribs, vertebrae, and neurals. Case to the contrary 

 notwithstanding. They are quite small, shaped like diamonds, with 

 rounded angles, and unite by suture to the expanded portion of the 

 ribs, that rises above, and reaches beyond the rib heads. The ribs are 

 also expanded laterally and unite with each other tt) form the peak of 

 this "first great roof." They soon sej)arate, though still expanded 

 for a third or half their length, according to the age of the animal. 

 They do not join the marginals, but lie in shallow depressions, that 

 in very old animals are arched over. So the carapace can be taken 



