76 Miscellaneous. 



of examining them more minutely, as they were soon afterwards 

 thrown away. It has hitherto been a matter of dispute among 

 naturalists as to whether this extraordinary animal, the connecting- 

 link between birds and mammals, produced living young or whether 

 it laid eggs. It may now, however, be considered as a settled 

 question. [Valeat quantum ! E. N.] " 



Thomas Southwell. 

 Norwich, 

 December 5, 1884. 



A Scorpion from the Silurian Formation of Siveden. 

 By Dr. G. Lindstrom:. 



The remarkable discovery has been made of a fossil scorpion in 

 the Upper Silurian (Ludlow) of the island of Gotland. The specimen 

 is well preserved and shows clearly the delicate brown or yellowish- 

 brown chitinous cuticle, compressed and wrinkled by the pressure of 

 overlying beds ; the cephalothorax, the abdomen with seven dorsal 

 plates, and the tail composed of six segments, of which the last con- 

 tracts and becomes pointed to form the poison-dart. The sculpture 

 of the surface is exactly as in recent scorpions, and consists of tuber- 

 cles and longitudinal ridges. One of the stigmata is visible on the 

 right side, proving clearly that the animal respired air, as, indeed, 

 its whole organization demonstrates that it lived upon dry land. 



In this scorpion, named Pala>ophonus nuncius by MM. Torell 

 and Lindstrom, we have therefore the most ancient known terres- 

 trial animal ; the dragon-flies, which hitherto claim the highest 

 antiquity, having been found in the Devonian strata of Canada. 



In the construction of this scorpion a very important feature is 

 observable, furnished by the four pairs of thoracic legs, which are 

 stout and pointed like those of the embryos of many other Tra- 

 cheata, and of forms like Vampodea. This form of leg no longer 

 exists in the fossil scorpions of the Carboniferous formation, in which 

 those appendages resemble those of living scorpions. — Gomptes 

 B( ndus, December 1, 1884, p. i)84. 



[Dr. Hinde has kindly informed us that, according to letters re- 

 ceived by him from Dr. Lindstrom, a fossil scorpion was obtained 

 last year by Dr. Hunter, of Carluke, from the Upper Ludlow beds 

 of Lesmahago, in Lanarkshire. The specimen was sent to Mr. 

 B. N. Peach in Edinburgh, but owing to that gentleman's ill-health 

 he was unable to do anything with it, until the receipt of a photo- 

 graph from Dr. Lindstrom showed that the Scotch and Swedish 

 specimens agreed so closely that they might well be referred to the 

 same species, certainly to the same genus. Dr. Lindstrbm's example 

 shows the dorsal surface of the animal, Dr. Hunter's the ventral 

 surface ; the latter is a female, while the Swedish specimen is in- 

 ferred to be probably a male.] 



