68 Notices of Memoirs — Professor H. G. Seeleij — 



sivalensis by the same characters, and by the plastron being connected 

 to the carapace by suture and not by ligament. 



Apparently the fossil now described represents a new species ; it 

 would therefore be well to designate it Nicoria headoneusis. This, 

 ■we believe, is the first record of the genus from England. At the 

 present day Nicoria is found in the East Indies and Central and 

 South America. 



isTOTiCES OIF DvcE:M:oII^s, etc. 



On the Significance of Pneumatic Foramina in Fossil Bones. 



IN a paper " On a Pneumatic Type of Vertebra from the Lower 

 Karroo Kocks of Cape Colony " (Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist., 

 ser. VII, vol. xiv, November, 1904, pp. 336-344), by Professor H. G. 

 Seeley, F.E.S., the author makes (on p. 341) some interesting 

 remarks on pneumatic foramina in fossil bones which appear 

 sufficiently important to reproduce here : — 



" Doubt has of late been current concerning the significance of 

 pneumatic foramina in fossil bones, and is put forward verbally 

 and in print by Professor H. F. Osborn. In an article in the 

 Century Magazine for September, 1904, similar in scope to the 

 lecture given at Cambridge in August to the British Association, 

 he enunciates the same views. Writing of Ornitholestes, Professor 

 Osborn remarks : — ' Externally its bones are simple and solid- 

 looking, but, as a matter of fact, they are mere shells, the walls 

 being hardly thicker than paper, the entire interior of the bone 

 having been removed by the action of the same marvellous law 

 of adaptation which sculptured the vertebrae of its huge con- 

 temporaries. There is no evidence, however, that these hollow 

 bones were filled with air from the lungs, as is the case of the bones 

 of birds.' 



" Ornitholestes is compared with Coelunis, Sallofus, Ornithomimus, 

 and Aristosuchus. It is known from the skull, forty-five vertebree, 

 pelvis, and representative parts of both fore and hind limbs of one 

 individual (Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. xix, p. 459). But from 

 the context quoted I gather that the author's conclusions should be 

 applied, not only to Ornitholestes, but to the pneumatic vertebrae of 

 the largest Dinosaurs, possibly to all fossil pneumatic bones which 

 are not referable to birds. 



" The current belief that a pneumatic vertebi'al column is evidence 

 of the prolongation into the bones of air-cells from the lungs is an 

 inductive conclusion, based upon the evidence from the parallel 

 condition in the bones of birds. This evidence is affirmed by 

 Professor Osborn, in the passage quoted, not to exist, and in place 

 of it he offers what is termed the ' Law of Adaptation ' as having 

 sculptured these huge vertebrae. I have met with no enunciation of 

 this law ; and until it is explained how it differs in physiological 

 action from the processes which sculpture or excavate the bones of 

 birds, it will be difficult to judge whether we are offered a law, 



