XIV. PALAEONTOLOGY OR FOSSILS. 117 



very large species, in which the size acquired by these reptiles is 

 well exemplified, and also the large orbit with the circlet of 

 sclerotic or bony plates used as a protection to the large eye. 

 Members of this group of reptiles are known to have grown 

 to the great length of twenty-two feet. 



The genus Ichthyosaurus has been met with in the Mesozoic 

 rocks of Australia and New Zealand ; and in the same case with 

 the Thylacoleo remains (No. 15. Osteological Hall), are temporarily 

 placed casts of the bones of /. australis, a species described by 

 Prof. McCoy from North Central Queensland. These consist of 

 several vertebrae, portions of the skull showing the bony orbit, a 

 paddle, &c , and are taken from the originals in the National 

 Museum, Melbourne. 



The remains of the Chelonia (Tortoises and Turtles) have been 

 discovered in the Cave-breccia of Wellington, and fragments of 

 the carapace, probably of a freshwater Turtle are shown in case 

 No. 15 in the Osteological Hall. In this order must now be 

 placed the remarkable heads and disjointed bones known as 

 Megalania and Meiolania, formerly described by Sir Richard 

 Owen as those of a gigantic horned lizard. So far palseontological 

 research has only revealed the existence of these animals in the 

 Quarternary or Post-Tertiary deposits of Queensland and Lord 

 Howe Island."^ The dimensions of the largest, Meiolania oweni 

 Smith Woodw. ( = Megalania prisca, Owen), were fourteen feet or 

 even more in length, with nine horn-like prominences on its tail, 

 which measured one foot ten and a half inches in breadth. " The 

 skull, at first glance, looks like that of some flat-headed form of Ox ; 

 but the bones are altogether dissimilar, and the jaws are without 

 teeth." This species is from Queensland, but the Lord Howe 

 Island form is smaller. Representations of the skull of the 

 former, and bony tail sheaths of both species are in the same 

 case with the Ichthyosaurus remains (No. 15 Osteological Hall). 

 The carapace of an undoubted Turtle and an Qgg from the Post- 

 Tertiary deposits of Lord Howe Island, and the head of what 

 will probably prove to be another species of Meiolania, have 

 lately been added. 



* The remains of Meiolania are now known to occur in the Pliocene 

 Deep Lead at Canadian Lead, Gulgong. 

 I 



