5i8 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



headed cervical ribs. From other plesiosaurians in which the 

 skull is full}' known, it differs in that the palatines meet each 

 other in the middle line, but this is a feature which the author 

 thinks will be met with in Pliosaitnis. The assumed relationship 

 of the plesiosaurs to chelorians is disputed. The latter lack, for 

 instance, epiph3'ses to the humerus, while such resemblance as 

 exists between the shoulder-girdle in the two groups is due to 

 adaptation. Chelonians are without the parietal foramen of 

 plesiosaurs, and retain the h3'pocentral mode of articulation 

 of the ribs, whereas in plesiosaurs the ribs are attached to the 

 transverse processes of the vertebrae. Sauropterygia are, indeed, 

 probably descended from theriodont ancestors, while Chelonia 

 appear to be derived from a cotylosaurian type, both being 

 widel}' sundered from ichth3'osaurs and rh^mchocephalians. 



Brief reference will suffice to a paper by Mr. F. Broili, 

 published in the Centralblatt fi'ir Miueralogie, on certain reptilian 

 remains from the Kossen beds of the Trias of the Alps. From 

 the form of the dorsal vertebrae and the stoutness of the 

 abdominal ribs, the specimens evidentlj^ indicate one of the 

 nothosaurs, or primitive sauropter\'gians. Their large size 

 suggests affinity with Partauosaunis, but in structure the 

 vertebrae appear to display characters intermediate between 

 those of that genus and those of NotJiosaitnis. 



In a communication to Science for 1906 (vol. xxiv. p. 184) 

 Prof H. F. Osborn states that the American Museum has 

 received from the Brazilian Coal Commission natural casts 

 of a small Permian reptile near akin to Stereostenunn of the 

 same country' and horizon, and to Mesosaiirus of the South 

 African Permian. An opinion is quoted to the effect that none 

 of these reptiles are related to the plesiosaurs (Sauropterygia). 



The huge Eocene turtle known as EospJiargis gigas, t3'pically 

 from the London Cla3', also occurs in the corresponding forma- 

 tion of Belgium, where an almost complete specimen has been 

 discovered at Ouenast. According to Mr. DoUo (in the serial 

 alreadv quoted) the upper shell, or carapace, of this turtle is 

 quite different from that of the modern leather3' turtle, and is of 

 the general t3'pe obtaining in ordinar3' turtles. 



Remains of soft river tortoises (Trion3-chidas) from various 

 North American horizons form the subject of a paper b3' 

 Mr. O. P. Hay in the Bulletin of the American Museum, 

 vol. xxiii. art. 34. 



