351 



The writer has received for examination from the Wagner Free Institute an injured nuchal 

 bone (plate 54, fig. 3) that was collected at Peace Creek, Florida. It has some resemblance to 

 that of T. euylypha. The sculpture is not so strong and that produced by the growth of the 

 horny scutes shows in addition to that seen in the type ot the species. On the area of the first 

 vertebral scute, in the midline, there is a high ridge, or carina. 



Trachemys sculpta sp. nov. 

 Plate 54, figs. 4-9. 



In the Dr. Jarman collection of fossil bones made in Hillsboro County, Florida, now the 

 property of Vanderbilt University, there is a strongly sculptured nuchal bone which represents 

 probably a hitherto undescribed species. This nuchal resembles much that of T . bisornata 

 (Cope) and possibly belongs to it; but the differences in form and sculpture and apparently 

 the differences of level seem to justify regarding it as distinct. Cope's bisornata came from the 

 Equus beds, belonging to the Pleistocene; the present species from probably the Peace Creek 

 beds, belonging to the Pliocene. 



The nuchal (plate 54, fig. 4) has a median length of 55 mm.; a width of 29 mm. in front; 

 and a maximum width of 63 mm. The length and breadth are relatively the same as in T. 

 bisornata. The width in front is only 50 per cent, of the length, while in T. bisornata it is 

 70 per cent. The anterior edge is obtuse; in the Texas species it is acute. The greatest 

 thickness, just behind the sulcus between the nuchal and vertebral scutes, is 15 mm.; that at 

 the articulation with the first peripheral, 13 mm. Where the bone joins the first neural the 

 thickness is 7 mm. The area of the first vertebral scute is very convex, producing a broad 

 rounded canna. 



The sulci are sunken to a great depth. The nuchal scute is long and narrow, and its area 

 is raised into a strong ridge. The first vertebral is 24 mm. wide in front and it expands poste- 

 riorly. The front of each first marginal on this bone is nearly one-half the width of the front of 

 the first vertebral. In T '. bisornata it is not one-third. The areas of the first marginals are 

 sculptured into prominent ridges and grooves. In T '. bisornata these are feeble and the lines 

 of growth of the scutes are more prominent. Where the ridges show in bisornata they diverge 

 at a greater angle from the midline. On the area occupied by the first vertebral of T. sculpta 

 there are some ridges running parallel with the midline. On the area occupied by each first 

 marginal there are 5 or 6 ridges which run outward and backward. 



Plate 54, fig. 5, represents the distal end of probably the third costal. Its width is 45 mm. 

 at the distal border, but it narrows upward. The fragment belongs to the Jarman collection, 

 in Vanderbilt University. 



Plate 54, figs. 6, 7, represents two neural bones found with others of the same kind in the 

 Jarman collection. The one with the sulcus crossing it has a length of 35 mm. and a thickness 

 where it joined the costal of 1 5 mm. They may or may not belong to the species here described. 



Figs. 8 and 9 of plate 54 represent two costals which may belong to the present species. 

 Fig. 8 is probably the right fourth costal and lacks the proximal half. The thickness at the 

 distal end is 8 mm. The original of fig. 9 is the left sixth costal. It is thickened on the anterior 

 border of the distal end to 13 mm., the posterior border at the distal end being only 9 mm. 



The type nuchal resembles rather closely T. euglypha (Leidy); but the front of the nuchal 

 of the latter is broader and more deeply notcht and the excavation for the first neural is broader. 

 The nuchal scute is broader and shorter. The greatest thickness is 21 mm., far exceeding that 

 of T. sculpta. 



Trachemys? jarmani sp. nov. 



Plate 54, figs. 10-12. 



The species to which the above name is given is based on a complete nuchal bone, a part 

 of the Jarman collection of fossil bones obtained in Hillsboro County, Florida, by Dr. W. H. 

 Jarman, and presented by him to Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee. The age of 

 the beds is somewhat uncertain, but they are probably of the same age as the Peace Creek 

 beds. The species is referred provisionally to Trachemys. 



The nuchal (plate 54, fig. 10) is remarkable on account of the shortness of its hinder 

 portion and the evidence which it affords that the neural bones were very broad. The total 



