Geological Papers. 123 



of Diplocaulus of what appear to be distinctly two species, together 

 with a large quantity of more or less intermingled remains of two 

 additional smaller species of the genus from the Permian bone-bed 

 near Orlando, Okla. This material enables me to determine much 

 that is new and of interest concerning this singular genus of paleo- 

 zoic amphibians, not the least of which is the discovery of small 

 but well-formed limbs, both anterior and posterior, which had been 

 previously never detected in the abundant material known. There 

 is yet much to be learned concerning the structure and especially 

 the habits of these remarkable animals; so much that I do not ven- 

 ture to give a restoration of the creature. The jSgures, carefully 

 drawn by myself, will render unnecessary a detailed description of 

 the bones.- 



SKULL. 



Two excellent skulls, both nearly complete, were obtained of two 

 distinct forms. The better one of these two (No. 651) is perhaps 

 the best of the genus hitherto obtained. It was found by myself 

 lying exposed upon the top and side of a small mound, near the 

 Wichita river, just west of the Vernon road in Texas. It was in 

 two larger and two smaller pieces, the largest with its dorsal surface 

 uppermost, from which the thin outer tablet of bone had been 

 eroded by the weather, rendering the sutures for the most part very 

 conspicuous. That I might not be biased by Cope's determinations 

 of the sutures, I traced them quite independently, as they are re- 

 produced in the drawings (figs. 1 and 4). A comparison with 

 Cope's figures (reference to which will be found in the foot-note) 

 will show how closely they agree throughout. Broili," in his studies 

 of the skull, was unable to distinguish the sutures, and even cast 

 doubt upon Cope's determinations. With the aid of a hand lens I 

 find no difficulty in distinguishing them in any specimen. 



The figures will show sufficiently well the form and relations of 

 the different elements to render unnecessary a detailed description 

 of them. The absence of a distinct lachrymal bone is not at all 

 remarkable, since other early forms either lack this element or 

 have it excluded from the orbit; and these facts seem to support 

 the contention of Jaekel that the element usually so-called is not 

 really the lachrymal of the mammals, which should rather be ho- 

 mologized with the prefrontal, a very constant bone. The fusion 

 of the postorbital and postfrontal is, however, unexpected. That 



9. Paleontographica, LI. p. 8, 1904. He says, after an examination of the skull figured by 

 Cope: "auf welchem samtliche Nahte eingetragen sind. so sind dieselben in Wirklichkeit auf 

 dem Stucke zumeist nicht vorhanden, sondern mit Farbe eingezeichnet; an einzelnen Stellen 

 durften ja Teile von Nahten existierin, dooh war es mir-nich moglich infolge der eingetragenen 

 Linien etwelche zu constatieren." 



