STEGOCEPHALIA. CAUDATA. 139 



Labyrinthodonts are also known from the Karoo Formation 

 (Permian and Trias) of South Africa, and from the probably 

 equivalent Lower Hawkesbury Formation of New South Wales. 

 An imperfect skull (Rhytidosteus capensis) from Beersheba, 

 Orange Free State, exhibits an unusual extension of the bones 

 of the palate, which are tuberculated. 



The so-called Chirotherian footprints from the Trias of 

 England and Germany were probably made by some of these 

 Labyrinthodonts. Both extremities are shown to have been 

 pentadactyl, and the maims is much smaller than the pes. 



ORDER 2. GYMNOPHIONA. 

 The Caecilians are entirely unknown among fossils. 



ORDER 3. CAUDATA (OR URODELA). 



The known extinct representatives of the newts and 

 salamanders do not afford any information as to their origin 

 and development. Only one skeleton of Mesozoic age has 

 hitherto been discovered, namely, Hylwobatrachus croyi from 

 the Wealden of Bernissart, Belgium. This specimen is tolerably 

 well-preserved, about O'l m. in length, and seems to indicate 

 a perennibranchiate animal. There are traces of a maxillary 

 arch, and of three pairs of ossified branchial arches. The 

 fore limbs are shorter than the hind limbs, the digits of the 

 former being four, of the latter five in number. The ribs are 

 extremely short, and there are at least fifteen caudal vertebrae. 



Throughout the Tertiary formations, remains of Caudata 

 are very rare, and most of them can scarcely be distinguished 

 from existing genera. Megalotriton, known only by detached 

 vertebrae and limb-bones from the Upper Eocene or Lower 

 Oligocene of France, seems to be an extinct newt. Molge 

 (Triton) itself is supposed to be represented by skeletons in the 

 Lower Miocene lignite of Rott, near Bonn. Giant salamanders 

 apparently' of the genus Cryptobranchus, at least as large as 

 those now surviving in Japan, are known by well-preserved 

 skeletons from the Upper Miocene of Oeriingen, Switzerland. 

 One of these, now in the Teyler Museum, Haarlem, is the 

 famous Homo diluvii testis of Scheuchzer. 



