Mr. T. P. Barkas on a Carboniferous Reptilian Malar. 419 



hiemsfiord, Sondmor, and Manger by Professors Boeck, Rasch, 

 and Sars. 



C. lobata, Mull., and 



C. septentrional is, Kr., are frequent along the whole coast. 



C. hi/strix, Kr., was found by Kroyer at Christiansund. 



LI. — On the Discovery of a Malar of a large Reptile in the 

 Northumberland Coal-measures. By T. P. BAEKAS. 



To the Editors of the Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 



Gentlemen, 



I desire briefly to direct the attention of your readers to the 

 discovery of a complete malar of a large Carboniferous reptile. 

 It was found by me in shale from Newsham Colliery, North- 

 umberland, and is probably the malar of the Labyrinthodont 

 Pteroplax cornuta (which was described in your pages in 

 April 1868) or of some analogous reptile. 



The surface-markings on the malar exactly resemble those 

 of ordinary reptilian head-bones, and closely correspond with 

 the description of the markings of reptile bones in the paper 

 referred to. The length of the bone is 8 £ inches, its width at 

 the anterior extremity is 3 inches, at the posterior extremity 

 2| inches ; and a space at the upper part of the bone exhibits 

 one-third of the eye-orbit. The specimen is in an excellent state 

 of preservation. In form the fossil malar very nearly corre- 

 sponds with the representation of that of a crocodile given in 

 Prof. Owen's ' Comparative Anatomy and Physiology of Ver- 

 tebrates,' vol. i. p. 145. no. 26 ; and when compared with the 

 malar of a crocodile in the Museum of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 

 it indicates the existence of a reptile in Northumberland during 

 the Carboniferous era of a size equal to that of a full-grown 

 crocodile. 



I have also obtained from the same district large jaws, 

 teeth, ribs, vertebra?, and other remains of Carboniferous La- 

 byrinthodonts ; and I feel confident that if the various collieries 

 in England and Wales, Scotland and Ireland, were diligently 

 searched by competent observers, a large and rapid addition 

 to our Carboniferous fauna would certainly be made. No 

 field of palseontological research has been more neglected, and 

 none would yield better results. 



I am, Gentlemen, 



Yours obediently, 



T. P. Baekas. 



Newcastle-on-Tyne, May 14, 1809. 



32* 



