irORTH-CABOLINA GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY. 213 



CHAPTEK XYI. 



REPTILIA. 



Description of Reptilian remains of the marl beds of North-Carolina, 

 Reptiles of the Green sand. 



I was fortunate in discovering a vertebra of a large size on 

 the lower Cape Fear, which, at the time, I supposed to be 

 new. As the discovery was confined to this single piece of 

 the skeleton, I deemed it insufficient to draw from it special 

 conclusions respecting the family of saurians to which it be- 

 longed. 



Since this discovery, Prof. II. D. Rodgers has presented to 

 Prof. Owen, of London, a collection of vertebrae from the 

 green sand of New Jersey, among which I find the saurian 

 described, to which my North-Carolina fossil must belong. 



Figure 34 (A.) represents the vertebra from the upper part of 

 the green sand of North-Carolina. It belongs to the lumber 

 region. Its type is procelian, that is, it is concave before 

 and convex -behind, like the crocodiles of the present day. 

 The body is long, and from the anterior half it sends off' 

 strong processes at nearly right angles, which are thin and 

 strong. The articulating extremities are less concave and 

 convex than those of the alligators of the Southern States. 

 In this character I find it agrees essentially with those of 

 New Jersey. 



The abdominal face is smooth, and marked by two, or a 

 pair of elongated holes, situated rather nearer the concave 

 than the convex end. The body is cylindrical, especially pos- 

 teriorly. Prof. Owen refers the New Jersey saurian to the 

 lizards and to the mososaurian type. The name which has 

 been conferred upon this remarkable saurian is Macrosaurus. 

 If my determination is right with respect to the identity of 

 the New Jersey and North-Carolina specimens, it will be 

 known by the same name. This vertebra is three and three 



