CARBONIFEROUS AIR-BREATHING VERTEBRATES OF 

 THE UNITED STATES NATIONxVL MUSEUM. 



By Roy L. Moodie, 



Of the Vnivcrsity nf Kansas, Lawrence. 



The writer has been engaged for some months investigating the 

 structure of the earliest air-breathing vertebrates. Through the 

 kindness of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, Dr. Charles 

 D. Walcott, he was given the privilege of studying the collection of 

 the U. S. National Museum, which contains remains of these forms. 

 This collection is a small one but of great interest, and is unique in 

 containing the only examples known of scaled amphibians from North 

 America, as well as the only known specimen of a Carboniferous rep- 

 tile from the Allegheny series. 



The specimen of the reptile is so important in the light of the 

 present discussions concerning the origin of the Reptilia that it is 

 considered worthy of an extended description, although it has been 

 previously described by Cope, Williston, and the writer. None of 

 these authors has, however, dealt with the anatomy of the animal 

 as a whole, and, although Williston published an excellent photo- 

 graph (here reproduced) which corrected some of the errors of Cope's 

 original drawing, yet even a photograph is lacking in details. The 

 relations of the pelvic region and the structure of the vertebral 

 column are especially indistinct, so that an outline drawing of the 

 skeleton has been introduced in Plate 5. 



ISODECTES PUNCTULATUS Cope. 



Plates 4 and 5. 



Tuditanns punctnlatiis Cope, Anier. Naturalist, 1890, p. 303. — Hay, Cat. 



Foss, Vert. N. A., 1902, p. 41.5. 

 Isodectes punctulatus Cope, Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc, vol. 30, 1S97, p. 88, 



pi. 3, fig. 3 ; Syllabus of Lectures on the Vertebrata, 1898, p. 61. 

 Isodectes copei Williston, Jouru. Geo!., vol. 16, 1908, p. 395. — Moodie, 



Trans. Kans. Acad. Sci., 3909. [Refers to Isodectes copei Williston 



in connection with the proposed new classification of the Amphibia] ; 



Amer. Naturalist, vol. 45, p. 122. — Holland, 11th Annual Report of 



the Carnegie Museum, 1908, p. 32. 



The specimen of Isodectes punct'iJattis Cope, which is less than 

 inches in length, consists of the following parts: A nearly complete 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. 37— No. 1696. 



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