PERMOCARBONIFEROUS AMPHIBIANS AND REPTILES 69 



is extraordinarily broad and long, and of great stomach capacity; 

 its shape is scarcely appreciable in the side view of the restoration. 

 Its front legs were unusually powerful, and its sharp claws may have 

 been used in burrowing. Casea was a relatively slow-moving, 

 dry-land reptile. 



Still more remarkable was the animal shown in Fig. 11, from 

 New Mexico, a very perfect skeleton of which has recently been 



Fig. II. — Ophiacodon minis, a pelycosaur reptile about seven feet long. From 

 New Mexico. 



mounted in the University of Chicago museum. Ophiacodon, 

 so named by the late Professor Marsh because of its slender, snake- 

 like teeth, was fully seven feet in length, and is especially note- 

 worthy because of its apparently enormous skull — apparently, 

 though not really, since it is very narrow, and composed of deli- 

 cate bones. The feet of Ophiacodon are the shortest and stoutest 

 known among pelycosaurian reptiles, and its claws were blunt and 

 nail-like, suggesting lowland or littoral habits, not unhke those of 



