Geological Society. 373 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



[Continued from p. 310. J 



March 23, 1859.— Prof. J. Phillips, President, in the Chair. 



The following communications were read : — 

 1. "On some Amphibian and Reptilian Remains from South 

 Africa and Australia." By Thomas H. Huxley, F.R.S., Sec. G.S., 

 Prof, of Natural History, Government School of Mines. 



The author described in the first place the remains of a small 

 Labyrinthodont Amphibian, which he proposed to call MicrophoUs 

 Stowii. The fossil was discovered by Mr. Stow, and accompanied 

 that gentleman's paper " On some Fossils from South Africa," read 

 before the Society on the 17th of November last, on which occasion 

 Prof. Huxley expressed the opinion that it would prove to be an 

 Amphibian, and probably a Labyrinthodont. 



It had been found impossible to work out the back part of the 

 skull, so as to exhibit the occipital condyles ; but the characters of 

 the few cranial bones which remain, of the teeth, and of the lower 

 jaw, and the traces of a largely developed hyoidean apparatus, 

 afforded sufficiently convincing evidence of the affinities of Micro- 

 phoUs. 



The generic appellation is based on the occurrence of numerous 

 minute polygonal bony scutes on the integument of the under sur- 

 face of the head ; in which character MicrophoUs has a remote re- 

 semblance to Archegosaurus. The scutes, however, are very dif- 

 ferent in their aspect from those of the last-named genus. 



MicrophoUs has little resemblance with any European Labyrintho- 

 donts, except Metopias, and the singular so-called " Labyrinthodon 

 Bucklandi," from the Trias of Warwickshire, to the peculiarities 

 of which the author alluded, proposing to consider it as the type of 

 a new genus, which might be termed " Dasyceps." 



On the other hand, there are two southern forms of Labyrintho- 

 dont, which exhibit many similarities to MicrophoUs. These are 

 the Brachyops laticeps of Prof. Owen, from Central India, and a 

 new form allied to Brachyops, but distinct from it, from Australia. 

 This last was described and named Bothriceps aiistralis. 



The author stated that he^vas not pre])ared to draw any very 

 decided conclusion, as to the d^e of the Karoo- or Dicynodon-beds, 

 from the fact of the occurrence of Labyrinthodont Amphibia in 

 them, inasmuch as the Lal)yrinthodonts range from the Lower Lias 

 to the Carboniferous Formation inclusive ; and MicrophoUs is unlike 

 any of the Labyrinthodonts whose precise age is known. 



The fragmentary remains of a young reptile, which were found 

 associated with MicrophoUs, were stated by Prof. Huxley to be 

 undoubtedly those of a Dicynodon. Of this, however, and of a 

 small Dicynodont skull from the same locality, he promised to speak 

 on a future occasion. 



The second part of the paper consisted- of a description of the 

 structure of the cranium, of the sclerotic ring, of a fragmentary 



