1908.] OF A GENUS OF EXTINCT REPTILES. 607 



Therefore the restorations which show elevated scutes extending 

 from the skull to the extremity of the tail, or three parallel rows 

 of scutes on the back entirely separated, and those which show 

 the body clustered ovei- with rows or groups of scutes, are entirely 

 imaginary, for the only evidence for the armour is the skeleton 

 in the British Museum. 



Some writers in this country, and in Germany, have denied 

 that any armour at all is present. The Biitish Museum skeleton 

 is sufficient evidence of its characteristics. If it had been more 

 extensively developed over the body it is improbable that it would 

 have escaped detection in the careful removal of the matrix 

 during the two years that I watched the development of the 

 skeleton ; and there is no reason to modify in any way the 

 original description or figure. 



That evidence may now be added to by a short account of 

 specimens of scutes already referred to (I.e. pp. 315, 346) as 

 collected by Mr. J. van Renen, R.N., at Steenkamps Poort, south 

 of Fraserberg. I had just collected the Pareiasaurios and was 

 passing noi'th, when this gentleman showed me a series of badly 

 preserved bones collected as weathered, and invited me to select 

 any example which might be necessary. I had no doubt they 

 were Pareiasaurian, though the essential characteristic parts of 

 the skeleton were not preserved. I accepted one caudal vertebra, 

 •and a series of nine scutes as giving evidence of armour, which 

 I had not seen at that time. 



The scutes are free from matrix, vary greatly in size, and 

 belong to a dijSerent species from P. baini, which I propose to 

 indicate on the evidence of these scanty materials as Pareiasaurus 

 steenkam2')ensis. The scutes can only be supposed to have been 

 •arranged as in P. baini ; that is, in a single longitudinal row 

 down the back, with lateral scutes directed transversely outward 

 on each side from the union between each two successive scutes of 

 the linear series. All the ossifications are irregular, and about 

 half are broken (text-fig. 125). It is possible that all of those 

 preserved belong to the median series only, for none show the 

 curved convex forms of the lateral scutes of P. baini^ and this 

 difference may be a specific character. Four or five can be recog- 

 nised as median by their elongated forms ; and the remainder 

 may be median or lateral, if lateral scutes were present, as I think 

 the evidence of the surface characters indicates. They are smooth 

 on the under sid e, marked on the upper surface with a central conical 

 blunt boss, from which numei'ous short grooves radiate irregularly 

 to the margin, which is commonly thick and rough, as though 

 the plates were imbedded in the skin. Behind the central boss, 

 which is more or less flattened above, and less than half an inch 

 in diameter, is a distinct pit nearly as wide, which is seen in half 

 a dozen examples. The radiating ridges are more or less pitted, 

 and all the surfaces, supeiior and inferior, are pierced with fine 

 vascular markings. The largest plates are about 21 inches long 

 by 1| inch wide, and fully half an inch thick at the central boss. 

 In form they are irregularly ovate ; some appear to be trans- 

 versely ovate and have the central boss less conspicuous. 



Proc. Zool. See— 1908, No. XXXIX. 39 



