572 MR. R. LYDEKKER ON REMAINS [Nov. 19, 
3. On Associated Remains of a Theriodont Reptile from the 
Karoo System of the Cape. By R. Lyprxker, B.A., 
F.G.S., F.Z.8. 
[Received September 19, 1889.] 
(Plates LIV. & LV.) 
The remains of Anomodont Reptiles from the great Karoo system 
of the Cape Colony are so rarely found in associated sets that every 
instance of such association is of especial interest and importance, and 
I accordingly bring to the notice of the Society a series of associated, 
although imperfect, bones, presented in 1884 to the British Museum 
by Mr. C. 8. Orpen, of Smithfield in the Orange Free State. 
These specimens (Brit. Mus. No. R. 533) were obtained from the 
Karoo system of the Rouxville District, Orange Free State, and 
probably from the Beaufort stage, although I cannot be certain on 
the latter point. The bones retain portions of a brick-red ferruginous 
matrix, which is frequently very closely adherent to them, and with 
the colour of which they are much impregnated. This matrix so 
closely resembles that in which the reptilian bones are found in the 
Maleri stage of the Gondwana system of Central India, that if the 
specimens had been shown to me without any clue to their locality 
I should have said that they were probably of Indian origin. The 
majority of the fossils in the British Museum from the Beaufort beds 
are of a blackish or brownish-grey colour ; but according to Prof. 
A. H. Green red beds are of common occurrence on this horizon. 
The fossils in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons from 
the overlying Stormberg beds, catalogued by Sir R. Owen under 
the name of Massospondylus, exhibit a similar red matrix. 
The series of specimens comprises a number of more or less 
imperfect vertebree from the dorsal and caudal regions, and. several 
imperfect bones of the limbs and limb-girdles. Unfortunately, 
however, there is no trace of a tooth or any portions of the skuli,— 
a circumstance which is the more to be regretted, since the South- 
African representatives of the Theriodont suborder of the Anomodonts 
(to which suborder these specimens belong) have been mainly founded 
upon the evidence of the skulls and teeth. The specimens I select 
for description are certain of the vertebra and an imperfect scapula 
and humerus. 
Of the vertebrze two somewhat imperfect dorsals, cemented together 
by matrix, are represented from the right side in Plate LIV. fig. 1, 
ona scale of two thirds the natural size. These specimens, although 
somewhat flattened by pressure, exhibit the entire contour of the 
centrum and neural spine, and also show the peculiar characters of 
the transverse processes and the position of the zygapophyses. The 
two latter features are, however, exhibited still more clearly by the 
imperfect arch of a dorsal represented in fig. 2 of the same Plate. 
The centra of the dorsal vertebrz are of considerable length, and 
