PALEONTOLOGY. 4 I 3 



for the first time placed the Amphibians and Reptiles in two 

 separate groups of equal value in the classificatory system. In 

 the eighteenth century, fossil Amphibians had been found in 

 the Tertiary marls of Oeningen. In the year 1828, G. Jaeger 

 described the teeth and part of the skull of a gigantic Sala- 

 mander. These remains, found in the Triassic Alaun shales 

 of Gaildorf, were the first discoveries of Amphibians in Meso- 

 zoic epochs, and later discoveries of Amphibian remains were 

 made in the Bunter Sandstone of Sulzbach, and the Keuper 

 strata near Bayreuth (1836). 



In the year 1841, Owen published two memoirs on teeth 

 showing a labyrinthic structure, and on several skeletal remains 

 found in the Keuper of Warwickshire; Owen united these 

 remains under the name of Labyrinthodon, and ascribed them 

 to gigantic Batrachians. H. von Meyer and Plieninger, in 

 a Monograph on the fossil Labyrinthodonts of Wurtemberg 

 (1844), added much valuable information regarding the struc- 

 ture of the skull, the dental arrangement, and the skeleton of 

 this animal. After a careful comparison of the Labyrinth- 

 odonts with reptiles, Amphibians, and fishes, Meyer formed 

 the opinion that, in spite of many points of resemblance 

 with Amphibians, the Labyrinthodonts belonged to the 

 Reptiles. This view was retained by Meyer even after his 

 detailed investigation of the Triassic Saurians (1847). 



Burmeister published (1848-50) special memoirs on the 

 Labyrinthodonts from the Bunter Sandstone series at Bern- 

 berg and the Carboniferous rocks at Saarbriicken, and ex- 

 pressed his opinion that the Labyrinthodonts represented 

 mixed types of Reptiles and Amphibia. Ten years later, 

 Meyer described the same forms in a monograph which 

 is one of the best works on Palaeozoic Vertebrata. The 

 osteology of the Carboniferous genus Archegosaurus was fully 

 and accurately depicted, and an excellent exposition was given 

 of the incompletely ossified vertebrae and the several pieces 

 constituting them. Larvae with persistent gills were described, 

 but nevertheless Meyer still relegated the Labyrinthodonts to 

 the Reptilia. 



Some new forms were discovered in the Carboniferous for- 

 mation of Nova Scotia and Ohio, as well as in the Permian 

 rocks of Silesia, and Owen, on the basis of his examination of 

 these, erected (1861) two orders the Ganocephali, comprising 

 Palaeozoic forms with incompletely ossified vertebrae, persistent 



