360 



THE CARBONIFEROUS SYSTEM. 



conical and somewhat curved, the outer series from a line to two lines in 

 diameter, and the inner series three lines or more. They are imj^lanted 

 in shallow sockets in the maxillary and premaxillary bones, and are 

 anchylosed to the sockets. For the lower third, the outer surface 

 presents shallow vertical grooves, conformably with the plicated char- 

 acter of the internal structure. The upper portion is smooth, and its 

 internal structure presents merely radiating tubes of ivory, and concen- 



Fig. 141. — Baphetes planiceps, Owen. 



(a) Fragment of maxUlary bone showing sculpture, four outer teeth, and one inner tooth; nat. size. 

 (6) Section of inner tooth ; magnified. (c) Dermal scale ; nat. size. 



trie layers. The whole of these characters are regarded as allying the 

 animal with the great crocodilian frogs of the Trias of Europe, first 

 known as Cheirotherians, owing to the remarkable hand-like im- 

 pressions of their feet, and afterwards as Labyrinthodonts^ from the 

 beautifully complicated convolutions of the ivory of their teeth. 



The only additional remains attributable to this creature, found since 

 the publication of Professor Owen's description, are a bone and a scute 

 or scale. The former may be a scapular or sternal bone, and if so, 

 would warrant the belief that the creature possessed anterior limbs of 

 considerable size ; the proportion relatively to the skull being much 

 the same as in the American bullfrog. The latter is marked in the 

 same way as the bones of the head, and would indicate that Baphetes 

 was protected by bony dermal scales, resembling those of the crocodile. 



Of the general form and dimensions of Baphetes^ the facts at present 

 known do not enable us to say much. Its formidable teeth and 



