217 



secondary palate, closed eustachian passages, and procoelous 

 vertebrae familiar in the genera of the present day. 



Sub-Order 1. Parasuchia. 



The Triassic reptiles commonly claimed as ancestral crocodiles, 

 are capable, in the present state of knowledge, of being assigned 

 with equal appropriateness to the Dinosauria. They are met 



FIG. 135. 



Belodon kapjfi; skull from the superior (A) and palatal (B) aspects, one-seventh 

 nat. size. U. Triassic ; Wiirtemberg. mx., maxilla ; na., nasal ; nar., 

 external narial openings; or., orbit; p.na., posterior nares; pmx., pre- 

 maxilla ; por., antorbital vacuity. External to the orbit the large lateral 

 temporal vacuity is conspicuous ; the supratemporal vacuity is very small, 

 indicated only by the pair of notches in the figure above the occiput. 

 (After H. von Meyer.) 



with in Europe, Asia, and North America, but are only known 

 by comparatively fragmentary specimens. Belodon (Phyto- 

 saurus), from the Upper Keuper of Stuttgart, is already repre- 

 sented by fine skulls and other portions of the skeleton ; and 

 the same genus appears to occur in corresponding strata in 

 North America. Stagonolepis is found in the Triassic sand- 

 stones of Elgin, Scotland, but it is in an unsatisfactory state 



