5i6 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



of the modern group of the order, this genus, in the less 

 backward position of the posterior nostrils, makes some 

 approximation to Jurassic forms. 



A memoir on the structure and adaptive modifications of the 

 armourless marine Jurassic crocodiles of the genus Metri- 

 orhynchus, by Mr. G. von Arthauber (Bcitr. Pal. Ost.-Ung., vol. xix. 

 p. 287, 1906) has given rise to a considerable amount of discussion. 

 In the Ccntralblatt fi'ir Mincralogic (1907, p. 225) Dr. O. Abel 

 criticised the memoir somewhat severely, and published an 

 amended restoration of the external form of M.jcekdi^ in which 

 the reptile is represented with flipper-like limbs and a double- 

 lobed tail-fin. Later on in the same volume (p. 353) further 

 criticisms are published by Mr. E. Auer. To all these Mr. von 

 Arthauber replied in the Ccntralblatt (p. 385), where his own 

 views are maintained ; while in a second paper he gave further 

 details with regard to the structure of the skeleton of the hind- 

 limb, directing special attention to the arrangement of the tarsal 

 bones. Another contribution to the osteology of the genus, 

 as represented by M. siiperciliostis of the English Oxfordian, has 

 been made by Mr. E. T. Leeds in The Geological Magazine 

 (decade 5, vol. iv. p. 314), where attention is directed to the 

 confusion which has arisen owing to a portion of the coracoid 

 having been wrongly described as the scapula. 



Among more typical crocodiles, Mr. R. W. Hooley {Quart- 

 Journ. Gcol. Soc, vol. Ixiii. p. 50) has described a fine skull and 

 other remains of GoniopJwlis crassidens, obtained after the fall of 

 the cliff of Wealden strata at Atherfield, Isle of Wight. The 

 identification by Dr. A. S. Woodward (I.e., p. 132) of the same 

 genus, in the form of G. Hartti, in the Cretaceous rocks of Bahia, 

 Brazil, is of considerable interest. 



In the only paper on fossil snakes which has come under the 

 writer's notice, Dr. W. Janensch {A?r/riv. fiir Biontologie, vol. i. 

 p. 313) discusses the monster serpent Ptcrosphenus schiveinfnrthi^ 

 of the Fayum Eocene, and supports the view that it is rightly 

 associated with the European Palceophis in a separate family, the 

 Palseophidae, which is more nearly related to the pythons than to 

 the sea-snakes, despitethefact that its representativeswere marine. 



Important information with regard to the osteology of the 

 ichthyosaurs has been furnished by Dr. C. W. Andrews in a 

 paper on the Oxfordian Opthalnwsanrus leedsi published in 

 the May number of The Geological Magazine. This species is 



