28 EMYDOSAURIAN AND TESTUDINIAN REPTILES 
ce 
skull he considers (Science, loc. cit.) Carettochelys to be “ an 
ancestral form of the T'rionychia, which still preserves the 
peripheral bones, and which has the carapace and plastron 
completely closed.” He concludes—* Carettochelys cannot 
be placed in any group of living tortoises ; it has to be con- 
sidered as the representative of a peculiar gronp ancestral to 
the Trionychia, and in relation probably to the Amphichelydia. 
This group I propose to call Carettochelydes.” 
Nothing further was learnt about this species until 
1898 (Proc. Zod]. Soc., p. 851), when Boulenger exhibited, 
at a meeting of the London ZoGlogical Society, a dancing- 
stick from Dameracura, mouth of the Fly River, New Guinea, 
to which two imperfect skulls of Carettochelys were attached 
as ornaments or charms. As Boulenger considered that these 
‘“‘ specimens confirmed the account given by Baur in 1891] ” 
I have removed the family from the Pleurodira and placed it 
among the Trionychoidea. 
The above is all that is known of this remarkable tortoise, 
and in view of the extraordinary interest which attaches to it, 
it 1s to be hoped that the naturalists of New Guinea will shortly 
find means to collect other specimens both of adults and 
young, and put us in possession of some authentic data 
both as to its habits and mode of life. 
Genus VII. CARETTOCHELYS. 
Carettochelys, Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. Wales, xi. 1886, p. 158 
(insculpta): Boulenger, Catal. Cheion., p. 236, 1889. 
“Six neural plates, all separated from one another by 
the costals, which meet on the median line ’—Boulenger. 
(Caretta, a turtle ; xéAvs, a tortoise.) 
New Guinea. 
12. CARETTOCHELYS INSCULPTA. 
Carettochelys insculptus, Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. Wales, xi. 1886, 
p. 158, pls. iii-vi, Fly River. 
Carettochelys inscul sta, Boulenger, Catal. Chelon, p. 236, 1889. 
Tue Fry River ToRTOISE. 
‘““Carapace subcordiform, elevated and rounded in 
front, laterally flattened behind and strongly keeled, sides 
shelving, with the marginal plates expanding, densely rugose. 
Twenty-one marginals (including the pygo-marginal). The 
whole of the plates of the carapace and plastron are covered 
with small, round, raised rugations or wavy irregular raised 
