322 



DK. A. GiJNTUEK ON TWO LA.EGE EXTINCT 



Notice of two large Extinct Lizards, formerly inliabitiug the 

 Mascarene Islands. By Dr. A. Gtuntheb, F.R.S., F.L.S., 

 Keeper of the Zoological Department, British Museum. 



[Eead March 15, 1877.] 



I. — During an examination of remains of Birds and Chelonians 

 from the Mauritius, especially the Mare aux Songes, the locality 

 famous for its yield of Dodo-bones, I recognized in some frag- 

 ments parts of the skeleton of a Lizard. They were not nume- 

 rous, and consisted of a short fragment (with three teeth) of the 

 maxilla, five fi'agments of the mandible, seven more or less perfect 

 femurs, and portions of three humeri. Some had been collected 

 by Mr. Edward Newton, to whom science is so much indebted for 

 the better acquaintance with the extinct fauna of the Mascarenes, 

 others by Mr. H. H. Slater, one of the naturalists accompanying 

 the " Trausit-of- Venus " Expedition. 



Fig. 1. 



Imperfect mandible of Didosaurus mauritianus, Giiiither, of natural size. 

 A, the internal, and B, the external surface. 



The mandible is an extremely solid and thick bone, with Pleu- 

 rodont dentition, and with the alveolar edges far apart. In the 

 least fragmentary example the entire dentary and part of the 

 articular have been preserved ; but the articulary surface has been 

 broken away, so that we remain ignorant as to the form of the 

 joint and the part behind it. The dentary is 37 millims. long, 12 

 millims. high behind, and 7 millims. thick in its middle. Its outer 

 surface is very convex, smooth, perforated in its anterior half by a 

 series of five foramina mentalia. It rapidly tapers in front, and 

 is moderately deeply cleft behind for the reception of the articular 



