On Two new Species of Fossil Tortoises. 145 
XVIII.—Note on Two new Species of Fossil Tortoises. By 
C. W. Anprews, D.Sc., F.R.S. (British Museum, Natural 
History). 
(Published by permission of the Trustees of the British Museum.) 
Tue first of the two specimens which form the subject of the 
present note is an internal cast of the shell of a rather large 
Pleurodiran tortoise, with some of the carapace and plastron 
still adhering to it. It is from the Upper Greensand of 
Melbury Down, near Shaftesbury, Dorset, and it is said to 
have been used for some years for blocking a gate open, 
a circumstance which probably accounts for the broken 
condition of the marginal portion of the shell. ‘The speci- 
men then passed into the collection of late Mr. John Rutter, 
and was presented to the British Museum by Mr. Clarence 
E: Rutter in 1915. 
Most of tle carapace has been lost, and is represented only 
by the natural cast of its inner surface. The parts preserved 
are two or three costal bones on the right side, perhaps some 
neurals, the pygal, the supra-pygal or supra-pygals, and the 
six posterior marginals much broken at the edges. Portions 
of the posterior costals are present on the left side, and there 
are a few other adherent portions of bone of no importance. 
The plastron is, on the whole, beautifully preserved, only 
the front of the anterior lobe being missing, the epiplastrals, 
the front of the entoplastral, and parts of the hyo-plastral 
being represented by the impressions of their upper surface 
only. The bridge uniting the carapace and plastron is well 
preserved on the left side, but on the right most of it is 
represented by the impressions of the bones only. Tlie plates 
of the carapace and plastron, together with the infilling mass 
of matrix, probably give a pretty accurate idea of the true 
form of the shell, which was strongly arched from side to 
side and to a rather less degree from before backwards. 
The length of the shell was approximately 580 mm. (the 
front part of the cast is somewhat incomplete). The width 
is roughly 470 mm. ; the height is about 220 mm.; the length 
of the bridge is 225mm. ‘The plates all bear a strongly 
developed ornament consisting of round or oval tubercles, 
often flat at the top and sometimes with a small depression 
in the middle. They measure from one to four millimetres 
across aud are most strongly developed on the bridge and 
the lateral portions of the plastron. In spite of this strong 
sculpture horny scutes were present, at least on the plastron, 
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 9. Vol. v. 10 
