IN THE CARNIVOROUS DINOCIiPHALIAN REPTILES. 673 



Beliiiul the frontal region is seen the pineal fovainen, which is 

 I'cliitively small but stands in a little rounded elevation of bone. 

 The foramen stands in practically the middle of a very wide 

 parietal region. The back part of the orbital boss is continued 

 as a less thickened bony area above the small temporal fossa, and 

 then rises into the huge post-temporal boss whicii passes botli 

 upwnrds and backwards. Whether this post-temporal boss is 

 formed by the parietal, tabular, or squamosal cannot be made out. 

 This huge boss is continued outwards and downwards into what 

 is manifestly the squaniosal region, and forms a huge " clieek " 

 not unlike that of a PareAcisativus. That the cheek is not Pareia - 

 saurian in structure is manifest from the fact that there is an 

 undoubted temporal fossa. 



In front of the temporal fossa there is a small boss on what is 

 probably the jugal bone. 



The palate is fairly well preserved, but I have not at present been 

 able to satisfactorily clear it. So far as can be seen, it resembles 

 that of the Gorgonopsians more than that of other Therapsids. 

 As in the Gorgonopsian palate, there are a pair of dentigerous 

 areas partly formed by tlie posterior and main ends of the 

 palatines and partly by the pterygoids. The pterygoids have 

 large transverse processes like tliose of Therocephalians. There 

 appears to be, as in the Goigonopsinns, no suborbital opening 

 in the palate : if there is one, it must be very small. The 

 posterior part of tlie pterygoid is very short; the whole distance 

 from the occipital condyle to tlie transverse pterygoid processes 

 is less than one-third the whole length of the palate. The 

 quadrate is almost completely lost, but it must have been quite 

 small, and not likely larger than that in Oynodonts — possibly 

 smnller. 



The occiput has not been cleared. There appears to be a smn.ll 

 median part formed by the occipital elements proper with the 

 paroccipitals, and two enormous lateral portions formed evidcntl}' 

 mainly by the S(|uamosals. 



This remarkable skull I propose to call Burnetia mirabilis after 

 James Burnet, Lord Monboddo, the famous Scottish evolutionist of 

 the eighteentli century, the friend of Boswell, of Johnson, and 

 of Burns. 



The affinities of Burnetia are manifestly nearer to the Gorgon- 

 opsians than to any of the other known groups. It is fairly 

 certain that Btto^veiia is a Theriodont. The palatal structure 

 removes it quite clearly from the Dinocephalians and from the 

 Anomodonts. But while Burnetia has some affinity with the 

 Gorgonopsians, and may be descended from a Goigonopsian 

 ancestor, the -remarkable specializations it has undergone seem 

 to justify mo in placing it in a distinct suborder which may be 

 called Jiurnetiamorpha. At present it will stand as the sole 

 genus and representative of the sole family — the Burnetidre. 



