A NEW PHYTOSAUR FROM THE TRIAS OF 

 ARIZONA 



MAURICE G. MEHL 

 University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri 



Among the vertebrate remains from the Triassic of the western 

 states no other group is so abundantly represented as the Phyto- 

 sauria. Relatively abundant as fossils of this group are, however, 

 there is much to be learned of each of the several distinct tjrpes that 

 have been described. For the most part it is the skull that is 

 available for study, but even this is imperfectly known. 



Some time ago the writer described a well-preserved phytosaur 

 skull from Arizona, now in the geological museum of the University 

 of Wisconsin. This skull was considered a new form and was made 

 the type of the genus MachaeroprosopusJ- While several of the 

 doubtful details of the phytosaurian skull were made known by 

 the study of the specimen, especially the relations of the bones of 

 the posterior side, the palate, as is usually the case, was left in 

 doubt. 



Through the kindness of the University of Chicago the writer 

 was permitted some time ago to study a phytosaur skuU in the 

 collections of Walker Museum; a skull very similar to the Uni- 

 versity of Wisconsin specimen in many points. The study of this 

 material has made evident several pointed suggestions especially 

 concerning the structure of the palate. 



The specimen herein described is No. 396 of the Walker Museum 

 Vertebrate Paleontology Collections. It is the gift of Professor 

 J. E. Anderson, formerly of the School of Mines, at Socorro New, 

 Mexico. The name of the collector is unknown and the exact 

 locality has not been recorded. However, the skull is known to 



^M. G. Mehl, "New or Little-known Reptiles from the Trias of Arizona and 

 New Mexico, with Notes on the Fossil-Bearing Horizons near Wingate, New Mexico," 

 Bull. University of Oklahoma, New Series No. 103, University Studies Series No. 5, 

 1916, pp. 5-24. 



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