64 



S. W. WILLISTON 



length, with short, stout legs, not very long tail, and with the head 

 short and high, provided with crushing teeth behind and conical 

 teeth in front. It has an enormous parietal opening in the skull, 

 possibly suggesting a functional ''pineal eye." These animals 

 were at first thought to be burrowing in habit, because of the nature 

 of their limbs; but burrowing would have been impossible, since 

 by no possibility could the creatures have reached far enough for- 

 ward to dig a hole for the head to enter. Nor do they show any 

 decided aquatic characters, though doubtless they swam well. 



Fig. 6. — LimnosccUs paliidis, a cotylosaur reptile, seven feet in length. From 

 New Mexico. 



Like the amphibians and most other cotylosaurs and some of the 

 pelycosaurs, they were lowland or littoral creatures, living in and 

 about the old lagoons and lakes. 



The next type, the restoration of which is based upon a marvel- 

 ously complete skeleton in the Yale Museum from New Mexico, 

 is shown in Fig. 6, as also in part in Fig. i. It had a much longer 

 tail, and a more elongated and more powerful skull, beaklike in 

 front, armed with strong, conical teeth, the foremost of which in 

 the upper jaws were elongated and curved, as in the next group. 

 Doubtless this was also a lowland reptile, as I have suggested in its 



