170 DE. A. S/WOODWARD ON EXTINCT [Mar. 5, 



important reptilian fossils, however, still await description ; and 

 Dr. r. P. Moreno, Director of the La Plata Museum, has kindly 

 entrusted them to me for detailed study, of which the results 

 appear in the following pages. The new specimens represent a 

 species of the extinct armoured Chelonian Miolania; an undescribed 

 extinct genus of Ophidians ; and a large carnivorous Dinosaur. 



I. An abmoueed Chelonian, Miolania asghivtiwa. 

 (Plates XV.-XVIII.) 



In the anfcumn of 1898, Mr. Santiago Roth sent me a photo- 

 graph of a bony ring of a tail-sheath from the red sandstone of 

 Chubut, which Dr. Moreno and he regarded as most closely 

 resembling the caudal armour of the extinct Australian Chelonian, 

 Miolania \ Early in 1899, Dr. Moreno brought the actual fossil 

 to London for comparison with the original specimens from 

 Queensland and Lord Howe's Island, now in the Bi'itish Museum, 

 with the result that his determination of the Patagonian fragment 

 seemed to be confirmed. Microscopical sections, however, failed 

 to pi'ove identity, probably because the structure of the tissue of 

 the new specimen was not well preserved. Dr. Moreno therefore 

 sent another expedition under Mr. Roth to the locality whence 

 the caudal ring was obtained ; and this party was so fortunate as 

 to find and disinter not only the skull and mandible, but also 

 considerable portions of the carapace of a similar animal. A pre- 

 liminary notice of this discovery was published in September 1899 

 by Dr. Moreno ^, who sent the original specimens for exhibition 

 to the Dover Meeting of the British Association ^, At the same 

 time Dr. Plorentino Ameghino ■* briefly recorded a similar discovery 

 said to have been made by his brother Carlos Ameghino in the 

 Guaranitic Formation of Sehuen and Chubut. He also placed 

 his specimens in the family Miolaniidae, but in a new genus and 

 species, Niolamia argentina ; although no detailed description was 

 given to justify this arrangement. 



SJcull and Mandible. 



The skull (Plates XV.-XYII.) is much depressed and triangular 

 in shape, with the temporal fossse completely roofed by bone, the 

 orbits far forwards, and the single large narial opening terminal. 



^ R. Owen, " Description of Fossil Remains of two Species of a Megalanian 

 Genus {Meiolania) from Lord Howe's Island," Phil. Trans. 1886, pp. 471-480, 

 pis. xxix., XXX. Also " On Parts of the Skeleton of Meiolania platyceps, Owen," 

 ibid. 1888 B, pp. 181-191, pis. xxxi.-xxxvii. A. Smith Woodward, "Note on 

 the Extinct Reptilian Genera Megalania, Owen, and Meiolania, Owen," Ann. 

 Mag. Nat. Hist. [6] vol. i. (1888), pp. 85-89. 



^ F. P. Moreno, " Note on the DiscoTery of Miolania and of Glossotherium 

 {Neomylodo7i) in Patagonia," Geol. Mag. [4] vol. vi. (1899), pp. 385-388. 



^ F. P. Moreno and A. Smith Woodward, " Exiiibition of and Remarks on 

 a Skull of the extinct Chelonian Miolania from Patagonia," Rep. Brit. Assoc. 

 1899 (1900), p. 783. 



* F. Ameghino, Sinopsis Geologico-Paleontologica — Suplem. (1899), p. 10. 



