114 FOSSIL TURTLES OF NORTH AMERICA. 
Taphrosphys strenuus Cope. 
Figs. 107-111. 
Taphrosphys princeps, Corr, Cook’s Geol. New Jersey, 1868 (1869), p. 735 (name only). 
Taphrosphys strenuus, Corr, Ext. Batrach., Reptilia, Aves N. A., 1870, pp. 157, 166-B; Vert. Cret. 
Form. West, 1875, p. 264; Kerr’s Report Geol. Surv. N. C., 1875, Append. B, p. 34; Amer. Nat- 
uralist, x11, 1878, p. 128.—Hay, Bibliog. and Cat. Foss. Vert. N. A., 1902, p. 439- 
Prochonias strenuus, Corr, Amer. Naturalist, 111, 1869, pp. 89, 90; Ext. Batrach., etc., pp. 159, 167. 
Prochonias princeps, Corr, Amer. Naturalist, 111, 1869, p. 89; Ext. Batrach., etc., pp. 160, 167, line 44. 
Altho the present species had been previously mentioned, the earliest description of it is 
found in Cope’s monograph on the Extinct Batrachia, Reptilia, and Aves of North America, 
page 166-B, issued in April, 1870. Here Cope states that he had in his possession 3 specimens. 
Only one of these, the second mentioned by him, has been found in his collection in the 
American Museum of Natural History. This has the number 11206. It appears that the first 
specimen mentioned by him had been intended as the type of the species, while the one now 
numbered 1126 had been intended as the type of his species princeps. Before the description 
of the latter was printed it appears that he concluded to abandon it. Cope’s description of 
T. strenuus bears evidences of imperfect revision. The second specimen, number 1126, is 
labeled by Cope as having been obtained from the West Jersey Marl Company’s pits at Barnes- 
boro, Gloucester County, New Jersey. The level is the Upper Cretaceous. The remains 
are much broken, consisting of about 75 pieces; and so many parts are missing that it is 
impossible to determine the exact position of many of those which remain. Of the neurals 
none is preserved. A few fragments of the costals remain. One, probably the fragment 
i 
Fic. 107.—Taphrosphys strenuus. Anterior lobe of plastron. 3. No. 1126 A. M.N. H. 
Known portions shown by stippled areas. 
whose width and thickness are given by Cope, is gt mm. long, 57 mm. wide, and 10 mm. thick. 
The rib scarcely shows on the inferior surface. The upper surface presents a network of 
shallow grooves at one end, but at the other the grooves inosculate but little and run nearly 
parallel with the sutural borders. Cope states that the peripherals are rough from the reticu- 
late sculpture. A fragment of what is believed to be an anterior peripheral shows a close 
network of grooves. The greatest thickness of this bone is 21 mm. Its free border is obtuse. 
Large portions of the plastron are preserved. The bones are thick and heavy. Pieces 
which belong at the crossings of the sutures measure in thickness about 18 mm., increasing in 
places to 20 mm. As in other species of the genus, the transverse sutural faces are oblique to 
the upper and lower surfaces of the plastron, so that the hyoplastron overlapt somewhat the 
hypoplastron; and the latter, the xiphiplastron. On the inferior surface the network of 
grooves is coarse. On one fragment is seen a narrow and shallow sulcus. 
The anterior lobe of the plastron was broad and short (fg. 107). The right epiplastron is 
present and shows the whole of its free border, but some of the entoplastral border is broken 
away. To this is attacht a part of the free border of the hyoplastron. The width of the lobe 
at the hyoepiplastral suture was close to 300 mm. The front of the lobe was concave for a 
considerable distance on each side the midline. The fragment of hyoplastron is 18 mm. thick, 
but it thins to the subacute free border. On the epiplastron the free border becomes obtuse, 
the thickened part of the bone coming nearer the edge than on the hypoplastron. At the 
epiplastral symphysis the bone rather suddenly thickens to 22 mm. 
