Vertebrate Fossils from Brazil. 183 



the occurrence of Reptilian remains, with scales and teeth of 

 Lepidotus^ in the province of Bahia. Professor Hartt after- 

 wards * added important details in regard to the stratigraphy 

 of the fossiliferous deposits; and still later f several detailed 

 descriptions of the genera and species have been published, 

 notably by Professor Cope. Of the Bahia fossils the most 

 important collections have been made by Mr. Joseph Maw- 

 son, F.G.S., of the Brazilian Imperial Central Railway ; and 

 a small series recently presented by that gentleman to the 

 British Museum, supplementing previous donations of six 

 years ago, affords material for a few interesting observations. 



Mammalia. 



The only Mammalian bone is a left scaphoid " from allu- 

 vium at Ollios d'Agua, in the interior of the province of 

 Bahia, 13^ kilom. S. of Queimadinhas Station, on the Bra- 

 zilian Imperial Central Bahia Railway." In size the fossil 

 is quite equal to the corresponding bone of the well-known 

 Megatherium americanum^ and its characters are so similar 

 that there can be no doubt as to its indicating the presence of 

 a gigantic Megatherioid in the north-east of Brazil in Pleisto- 

 cene times. Whether, however, the animal is generically 

 distinct from Megatherium or merely a hitherto unrecognized 

 species must be determined by the future discovery of more 

 characteristic parts of the skeleton. 



Reptilia. 



A large number of stout Reptilian teeth and an imperfect 

 caudal vertebra occur among the fossils from the supposed 

 Upper Cretaceous Sandstones of the Bahia coast, and are not 

 improbably referable to the Crocodilian genus Hyposaurus^ 

 Owen. Prof. Cope has already described satisfactory evidence 

 of one species, H. Derhianus^ from the Upper Cretaceous of 

 the province of Pernambuco ; and it is possible that Mr. 

 Mawson's- fossils may pertain to the same form. The teeth, 

 when unworn, are marked by numerous extremely fine, 



* C. F. Hartt, " Geology and Physical Geograpliy of Brazil (Thayer 

 Expedition)," 1870. 



t E. D. Cope, " On two Extinct Forms of Physostomi of the Neotro- 

 pical Region," Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc. vol. xii. (1871), p. 53 ; also " A 

 Contribution to the Vertebrate Palreontology of Brazil," ihld. vol. xxiii. 

 (188()), pp. 1-21, pi. i. A. Smith Woodward, '' On the Fossil Teleostean 

 Uenus lihacolepis, Agass.," Proc. Zool. Soc. 1887, pp. 535-542, pis. xlvi., 

 xlvii. 



