10 FOSSIL KEPTILE. 



Nicholson and Lydekker tluit only one genus ( Rhino- 

 savrus) persisted to the Lower .Jurassic. 

 '. The Pterodactyls or winged reptiles, to which Mr. 

 Thureau suggests a reference, had not the elongate cen- 

 tral vertebra? of the form whose cast is now before you, 

 and there is not the slightest evidence of the character- 

 istic bones of the manus. Moreover, the Pterodactyls 

 only make their first appearance in Europe in the rocks 

 of Upper Jurassic age, whereas the fossil skeleton of 

 the reptile now considered, if obtained, as stated, from 

 the Mersey Coal Measures, undoubtedly belongs to 

 Permo-Carboniferous age. 



It is to be hoped that Mr. Thureau may be able to 

 obtain the original for the Tasmanian Museum, to which, 

 by right, it belongs, w^hen the opinion of our best 

 European or American specialists may be obtained as to 

 its exact affinities among the reptilia. My own opinion, 

 which I have great diffidence in expressing, is, that it 

 probably comes within that group of the Labyrmtho- 

 dontia, embraced within the Sub-order Microsauria. 

 The Labyrinthodonts included in this Sub-order, resemble 

 Lizards in outward appearance, and have the centra of 

 the vertebras more or less elongated, and long curved ribs. 



One genus of this order, Lininerpeton^ of the Permian 

 of Bohemia, possesses characteristics of the vertebrae of 

 the central and caudal parts, which come very close to 

 our Tasmanian representation from the Permo-Carbon- 

 iferous Coal Measure of Railton, Tasmania. 



1 am sure the Members of this Society will agree wdth 

 me in thanking Mr. Thureau for his valuable cast of the 

 reptile, and for his promise to endeavour to secure the 

 original for the National Museum of the Country w^here 

 the skeleton was found. 



For the sake of reference, and as a compliment to 

 Mr. Thureau, I propose in the meantime to refer alw^ays 

 to this, the oldest known remains of a vertebrate in 

 Tasmanian rocks, as " Thureau s MicrosaiirianJ'^ 



