E. T. Newton — On Emys lutaria from the Norfolk Coast. 305 



process which attaches it to the carapace, while the similar process 

 of the hyoplastron is broken away. 



Prof. A. Newton, in the paper cited above, made known to us for 

 the first time, the fact of the occurrence of the European freshwater 

 tortoise, in a fossil condition, in this country. It appears that the 

 specimens were obtained in the year 1836, from below a consider- 

 able accumulation of peat (seven feet), at East Wretham, but the 

 true nature of these remains was not recognized until they were seen 

 by the author of that most interesting paper. 



The Mundesley specimen does not quite agree with the figures 

 given by Prof. Newton, for when due allowance has been made for 

 their difference of size, it will still be seen, by the grooving of the 

 surface, that the large plates of tortoiseshell overlapped the 

 marginal ossicles to a greater extent in the latter than in the former. 

 By the kindness of Dr. Giinther, I had the opportunity of examin- 

 ing the recent specimens of Emys lutaria in the British Museum 

 osteological collection, and there I found, as Dr. Giinther had already 

 assured me was the case, a very noticeable variation in the extent of 

 this overlap. There is yet another point which deserves a passing 

 notice. In all the specimens of E. lutaria, both in the British 

 Museum and in the Royal College of Surgeons, there is a thickening 

 of the outer edge of some of the more anterior of the marginal 

 plates, producing a kind of rounded ridge ; the prominence of this 

 ridge varies, being much more obvious in some specimens than in 

 others. This character is not seen in the Mundesley specimen. 

 However, the close agreement between the recent Emys lutaria and 

 the fossil from the " Mundesley River Bed," not only in their 

 general form and in the arrangement of their plates, but also as 

 regards the ligamentous connexion of the carapace and plastron, 

 leaves little room for questioning their specific identity. 1 



Prof. Newton tells us in his paper (loc. cit.) 3 that the fossil 

 remains of Emys lutaria have been found in Denmark and Sweden 

 under conditions similar to those in which the Norfolk specimens 

 occurred, and with regard to the present distribution of the species, 

 we are further told that it is not now known in either Holland, 

 Belgium, N. France, or N.W. Germany. Such being the case, it is 

 not a little interesting to be able to add Belgium to the list of 

 countries from which the Emys lutaria has been obtained in a fossil 

 condition. My friend Mr. W. Davies directed my attention to a 

 specimen which is preserved in the Geological Department of the 

 British Museum ; it is an almost perfect carapace of this species of 

 tortoise, and formed a part of the rich collection of the late Prof, van 

 Breda, of Haarlem, who obtained it from a freshwater peat-deposit 

 at Ghent, Belgium. This specimen agrees very closely with that 

 figured by Prof. Newton. Here then we have another link in the 

 chain of evidence of the former distribution of Emys lutaria. 



1 The Mundesley specimen has recently been secured for the Norfolk and Norwich 

 Museum, where it is now preserved. 



2 See also his paper on the Zoology of Ancient Europe, read before the Cambridge 

 Phil. Soc, March, 1862. 



DECADE n. — VOL. VI. — NO. VII. 20 



