THE 



JOURNAL OF GEOLOGY 



JULY-AUGUST, 1908 



^THE OLDEST KNOWN REPTILE."— /^ODECTE^ PUNC- 

 TULATUS COPE 



S. W. WILLISTON 

 The University of Chicago 



Recently M. Thevenin has described and figured a very interesting 

 new air-breather from the Stephanian, or uppermost Carboniferous, 

 of France, under the name Sauravus costei, referring it to the Reptiha. 

 The form, of small size, has a long body, probably a long tail, verte- 

 brae with persistent notochord, apparently no hypocentra, single- 

 headed ribs attached intercentrally, two sacral vertebrae, ossified 

 carpus and tarsus, and a phalangeal formula, for the hind feet of 

 2, 3, 4, ?, ?. There are twenty-three or twenty-four dorsal vertebrae; 

 the humerus shows no epicondylar foramen; the tarsus has two bones 

 in the proximal row, a centrale and four distalia; and slender ventral 

 ribs are present. The author's conclusions are: 



En resume, Sauravus costei du Houiller de Blanzy est le plus ancien Reptile 

 trouve jusqu'a present en France. Malgre son anciennete, 11 est deja trfes evolue, 

 car ses membres sent a peu pres aussi parfaits que ceux des Sauriens actuels, 

 quoique la coalescence des os du tarse soit moins achevee que chez ces der- 

 niers. II a pourtant des characteres primitifs; .par ses vertebres ensablier a 

 notochorde continue et par ses cotes ventrales, c'est un Rhynchocephale. II 

 doit, jusqu'a ce que son crane soit connu, etre provisoirement place dans le meme 

 ordre que Palaeohatteria, Callibrachion, Kadaliosaurus, qui sont d'age un peu 

 plus recent; il est plus perfectionne que le premier de ces genres.^ 



In the American Naturalist for April, 1896, Professor Cope, in a 

 discussion of the Cotylosauria, made the following statement : 



I Annales de paleontologie (1907), Pt. 3, p. 19. 

 Vol. XVI, No. 5 395 



