1 86 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[Feb. 24, 1888. 



of papei% tlectute^, etc* 



ROYAL SOCIETY. 

 At the meeting on Feb. 9th, 1S88, a paper on "True 

 Teeth in the young Ornithorhynchus paradoxus," by 

 Edward B. Poulton, of Keble and Jesus Colleges, Oxford, 

 was communicated by W. K. Pariier, F.R.S. This 

 paper was a preliminary account of typical mammalian 

 teeth developing beneath the site of the horny plates 

 which subserve mastication in the adult animal. In the 

 upper jaw there are three teeth on each side ; in the 

 lower jaw two teeth, corresponding to the two posterior 

 teeth of the upper jaw, were proved to exist, but the 

 interior one may be also present, for the jaws examined 

 were not complete. The animal in which the teeth 

 were found was about 8'3 decimetres long in the curled- 

 up attitude in which it had been received, and the larger 

 hairs had alone appeared above the skin. 



The anterior tooth of the upper jaw was long, narrow, 

 and simple as compared with the others ; it was very 

 fully developed, containing completely formed dentine and 

 •enamel, and its apex was nearly in contact with the 

 lower surface of the oral epithelium. All the other 

 teeth were broad and large, those of the upper jaw 

 .possessing two chief cusps on the inner side of the 

 crown and three or four small cusps on the outer side, 

 while this arrangement was reversed in the lower jaw. 

 Dentine was only formed upon the large cusps, and was 

 not present upon all of these. The histological details 

 and the manner of development appear to be precisely 

 as in the higher mammalia, a fact which strongl}' sup- 

 ports the identification of teeth with the placoid scales 

 of Elasmobranchs. If teeth are so extremely ancient 

 then we should expect them to be unmodified in the 

 ancestral mammalia, although the other more recently 

 specialised characters in the higher mamm,als are found 

 in a more primitive condition in the former. 



The teeth were found in some sections of the skull 

 prepared for Dr. Parker by his son, Prof W. Newton 

 Parker. These sections which had not been examined 

 by Dr. Parker were lent to the author, and Dr. Parker 

 most generously encouraged the publication of the dis- 

 covery, and assisted the investigation with other material. 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 

 At the meeting held on January 25th, 1888, Prof 

 J. W. Judd, F.R.S. (President) in the Chair, the follow- 

 ing communications were read : — 



(1) "On Aihirits aiiglicus, a new Carnivore from the 

 Red Crag." By Prof. W. Boyd Dawkins. 



The specimen described is a small fragment of the right 

 lower jaw with the last three molar teeth in position, 

 and belongs to the Crag collection of the Yorkshire 

 Philosophical Society. It differs in a marked degree 

 from all fossil European Carnivores, and presents no 

 important points of difference when compared with a 

 series of jaws of recent Aihirus. The author gave a 

 description of the fossil and comparison of it with 

 Ailuriis fulgens, and also a table giving the comparative 

 measurements of the teeth and jaws of the fossil and of 

 recent Aihii-i. The species from the Craig was a more 

 powerful animal than any recent Ailiiri in the British 



Museum. The paper concluded with a notice of the 

 range of Aihirus in space and time. 



(2) "A Contribution to the Geology and Physical 

 Geography of the Cape Colony." By Prof A. H. Green. 



The account given in this paper of the geology 

 of Cape Colony was founded on observations made 

 during a visit to the country of four months' duration 

 for the purpose of reporting upon the coal. 



The Bokkeveldt Beds had yielded fossils referred to 

 Devonian. The Ecca Beds consisted of hardened sandy 

 clays, without lamination, and often weathering in 

 spheroids, and resembling decomposed basalt or dolerite. 

 These beds in the Ecca pass, north-east of Grahamstown, 

 were nearly 5,000 feet thick. 



The Kimberley Shales were mainly grey and dark 

 sandy shales, with a few thin layers of argillaceous 

 limestone. The Karoo Beds were red and purple shales, 

 with buff or reddish sandstone containing much decom- 

 posed felspar. 



The Molteno Beds, also sandstones and shales, usually 

 grey and dark-coloured, associated with grits and con- 

 glomerate, contained the only useful coals of the colony. 

 These coals were peculiarly laminated, and contained 

 much ash ; the seams were destitute of sandstones, 

 and often eroded on the upper surface. 



The author reviewed the lie of the rocks and physical 

 structure of the country, distinguishing between the 

 area of older rocks near the coast and the later deposits 

 commencing with the Dwyka Conglomerate of the in- 

 terior. There was apparently unconformity at the base 

 of this conglomerate ; it and the overlying Ecca Beds 

 were thrown into folds and occupied the Karoo plains, 

 whilst the ranges to the northward were formed of the 

 higher beds, ail nearly horizontal and resting quite 

 unconformably on the Ecca Beds. These ranges have 

 been carved out by denudation, which had removed the 

 Molteno, Karoo, and Stormberg Beds to the south and 

 north. 



The Bokkeveldt Beds are shown by their fossils to 

 be marine, and possibly all the formations up to the 

 Zuurberg Quartzite may be also marine. The Ecca 

 Beds have yielded no fossils which would enable us to 

 decide whether they are marine or freshwater ; the 

 Kimberley, Karoo, and Stormberg Beds are looked upon 

 as lacustrine. 



(3) " On Two New Lepidotoid Ganoids from the 

 early Mesozoic Deposits of Orange Free State, South 

 Africa." By A. Smith Woodward, Esq., F.G.S. 



Of the two species of fishes described in the present 

 paper, one was founded on specimens of four indi- 

 viduals brought to England by Dr. H. Exton in 1883, 

 together with the types of Trityloden and Rhytidosteus, 

 the other on two examples recently received from the 

 same source. Both were from the Stormberg Beds of 

 the Upper Karoo series. 



After giving full details of the structure of both forms, 

 the author showed that one species must be referred to 

 the genus Scmionottis, and was most nearly allied to the 

 American types referred by Sir P. Egerton to Ischypferus. 

 For this species the name of Semionotus capensis was 

 proposed. 



The other species agreed in its characters with the 

 Platysomidae, and was specially allied to the genus 

 Tctragonolepis ; but the nearest ally of all was a fish 

 from the Hawkesbury Beds of Australia, Clithrolepis 

 granulatits. The name of Clithrolepis Extoni was pro- 

 posed for the new South African species. 



