88 Mr. A. H. Woodward on 



animal displayed affinities both with the " orders Chelonia 

 and Sauria," but was more nearly allied to the latter^ of which 

 he proposed to form the new suborder Ceratosauria. These, 

 with all other known specimens, were lastly submitted to a 

 most careful examination by Mr. Gr. A. Boulenger^, who 

 regarded Professor Huxley's general conclusions as unques- 

 tionable, but offered cogent reasons for placing the genus, not 

 with the Cryptodiran Chelonians, but with the Pleurodira, 

 v/hich are at the present day so characteristic of the Australian 

 region. Mr. Boulenger regards MeioJania as herbivorous 

 and more terrestrial in habit than all known existing Pleuro- 

 dires. 



Another contribution to the correct interpretation of the 

 " Megalanian " fossils is unwittingly made by Mr. Lydekker 

 in the last volume of his Fossil Mammalian Catalogue just 

 issued. Among the foot- bones assigned to uncertain members 

 of the marsupial families of Nototheriid^e and Phascolomyidajf 

 are included specimens precisely similar to those described by 

 Sir Richard Owen in part iv. of his memoir on ^'Megalania " 

 as affording information in regard to the characters of the feet 

 of this reptile. These specimens were not improbably all 

 obtained at the same time and place, and there can be no 

 doubt of the correctness of Mr. Lydekker's interpretation ; 

 some of them indeed bear Sir Richard Owen's SiS. label 

 " Phascolonus ? ^^ They were all registered by Mr. William 

 Davies as pertaining to marsupials (nos. M. 3659, 60). 



It thus appears that under ^^Megalania prisca " have been 

 included (i.) lacertilian vertebrae and an occipital fragment, 

 (ii.) a chelonian skull and tail-sheath, and (iii.) marsupial 

 foot-bones. The first necessarily form the type specimens 

 of the genus and species, and the last are obviously at once 

 excluded from consideration. The second series of fossils, 

 however, require a name. 



Professor Huxley, as already remarked, unhesitatingly 

 places Mr. Bennett's Queensland skull and tail in the same 

 genus as the Lord-Howe's Island fossils, and the reference 

 appears fully justified by the specimens at present known. 

 But, as Mr. Boulenger observes, the rules of nomenclature do 

 not permit of the adoption of a new name, Ceratochelys, 

 however appropriate it may be, and the genus must hence- 

 forth be termed Meiolania, 



With regard to species^ the figures and descriptions of the 



* G. A. Boulenger, " On the Systematic Position of the Genus Meio- 

 lania, Owen [Ceratochelys, Huxley j,' Proc. Zool. Soc. 1887, pp. 554, 555. 



t R. Lydekker, ' Catalogue of the Fossil JMamraalia in the British 

 Museum/ part v. 1887, p. 169. 



