BOTHREMYDID^E. 



FIGS. 108-111. Taphrosphys strenuus. 

 No. 1126 A. M.N. H. 



108. Right liphiplastron, upper surface. AB, line of section 



represented by figure no; CD, line of section 

 represented by figure 109; , ischiadic articulation. 



109. Section along line CD of figure 108. 

 no. Section along line AB of figure 108. 

 in. Section at hypoiiphiplastral suture. 



The entoplastron must have been unusually large. Its anterior end approacht within 

 32 mm. of the anterior border. The anterior angle was slightly greater than 100. The sides 

 bounding this angle were approximately 130 mm. long. The width must have been about 

 160 mm. The inferior surface of the epiplastron displays an obscure reticulation, but the 

 hypoplastron is smooth. 



There are present 2 fragments of the right xiphiplastron. One of these is the hinder angle 

 and bears the ischiadic articulation; the other shows the bottom of the great notch at the rear 



and a part of the median suture. These 

 fragments join and are represented by fig. 

 108. The angular extremity had a very obtuse 

 free border. A short distance from the edge 

 the thickness is 17 mm. The ischiadic articu- 

 latory (fig. 108, E) surface is elevated and 

 about 40 mm. long and 24 mm. wide. It is 

 now much eroded. In front of this articula- 

 tion the thickness is 13 mm. The median 



longitudinal suture is coarse and jagged. Fig. 

 109 represents a section across the hinderouter 

 angle along the line CD of fig. 112. Fig. no 

 is a section along the line AB of fig. 108. The 

 posterior notch was about 180 mm. wide and 

 relatively shallow. It appears to differ much 

 from the notch in other species of the genus. 

 While the free border of the extremity of 

 the xiphiplastron is very obtuse, more anteri- 

 orly it becomes acute. Fig. 1 1 1 is a section at the hypoxiphiplastral suture. 



Cope described a bone which he regarded as the proximal end of the femur. With little 

 or no doubt the bone is the left humerus. It presents close resemblances to the corre- 

 sponding bone of Chelydra, the radial and ulnar processes, however, not being so thin as in 

 the latter genus. Cope also described as a coracoid a bone which certainly belongs to the 

 pelvis, having, as Cope states, 2 sutural faces and i cotyloid face. 



Taphrosphys molops Cope. 

 Figs. 112-izo. 



Taphrosphys molops, COPE, Cook's Geol. New Jersey, 1868 (1869), p. 735 (name only); Amer. Naturalist, 

 in, 1869, p. 89; Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc., xi, 1870, p. 274; Ext. Batrach., Reptilia, Aves N. A., 

 1870, pp. 158, 159, plate vii, fig. 16, text-figs. 43, 44; Vert. Cret. Form. West, 1875, P- 2 ^- HAY > 

 Bibliog. and Cat. Foss. Vert. N. A., 1902, p. 438. 



Taphrosphys molops var. enodis, COPE, Ext. Batrach., etc., p. 162. 



Prochonias enodis, COPE, Ext. Batrach., etc., pp. 158, 160. 



Bothremys (Taphrosphys) molops, ZITTEL, Handbuch Palaeontologie, 1889, p. 547. 



Of this species Cope had a number of specimens, none wholly complete, most of them 

 very incomplete. The one which presented large portions of the carapace and the plastron 

 had been obtained from the upper bed of Cretaceous greensand, at Barnesboro, Gloucester 

 County, New Jersey. This specimen is now in the American Museum of Natural History and 

 has the number 1472. Portions were figured by Cope, and it seems proper to regard it as the 

 type of the species. It is probable that the description of a specimen from Hornerstown 

 appeared a short time before the detailed description given in the Extinct Batrachia, etc.; but 

 that earlier description is not one that would enable us to determine the species, no part was 

 figured, and the specimen was not intended by Cope to stand as the type. 



' Of the carapace (fig. 112) Cope figured the nuchal and the right and left first peripherals. 

 Portions of all these bones are now missing. The anterior outline of the carapace was rounded 

 as in T. longinuchus, and the free border was acute. The shell appears to have been of only 

 moderate convexity. The width of the nuchal anteriorly was 50 mm.; its greatest width, close 

 to 115 mm.; its length was probably about 115 mm. Its proportions were therefore as in T. 



