Oeological Society of London. 571 



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Geological Society of London. — Opening Meeting, November 5, 1873. 

 — Professor Ramsay, F.R.S., Vice-President, in the Chair, The following com- 

 munications were read : — 



1. "On the Skull of a species of Halitherium from the Red Crag of Suffolk." 

 By Prof. W. H. Flower, F.R.S., F.G.S. 



The specimen described, which is in the collection of the Rev. H. Canham, of 

 Waldringfield, is from the so-called coprolite- or bone-bed at the base of the Red 

 Crag, and presents the usual aspect of the mammalian remains from that bed. It 

 is of especial interest as furnishing the first recorded evidence of the existence m 

 Britain of animals belonging to the order Sirenia. The fragment consists of the 

 facial part of the cranium, separated, probably before fossilization, from the 

 posterior part of the front o-parietal suture, and in a line descending vertically 

 therefrom. It was afterwards subjected to severe attrition, by which many of the 

 projecting parts have been removed, but sufficient remains to enable its general 

 relationship to known forms to be determined. The whole of that portion of the 

 maxillae in which the molar teeth were implanted is preserved. 



The author compared the fossil skull with those of the existing and extinct 

 species of the order, and stated that while it presents many characters common to 

 the Manati and the Dugong, there are others by which it differs from both, the 

 most striking being the more normal development of the nasal bones and the outer 

 wall of the nasal fossae, and especially the dentition, in all of which it shows a 

 more generalized condition. The existence in it of maxillary teeth removes it still 

 further from Rhytina. In general character the molars correspond with those of 

 the genus Halitheriu??!, in which the author considered that this fossil found its 

 nearest ally in H. Schinzi, Kaup, from the Miocene of the Rhine Valley, a forma- 

 tion in which several of the animals of the Red Crag bone-bed are known to 

 occur. The differences, however, especially the larger size of the cranium, in the 

 Crag specimen, and the larger size of its teeth, induce the author to regard it as a 

 distmct species, which he proposes to name Halitherium Canhami, 



Discussion. — Mr. Prestwich thought the specimen a most interesting addition to 

 the derived fossils of the lower beds of the Red Crag. It was most likely derived 

 from some of the Miocene beds which formerly existed, probably on what is now 

 the basin of the German Ocean. 



Mr. H. Woodward mentioned that in the Woodwardian Collection there was a 

 skull of Halithe7-ium from the Miocene of Darmstadt. It was, he thought, of 

 great interest to meet with these Miocene forms in the Crag, most of the fossils of 

 which appear to have been derived from the lower beds of the London Clay. 



Dr. Leith Adams mentioned the discovery of a tooth of Halitherium in a cal- 

 careous bed in Malta, where also he had discovered one of the ear-bones. 



Mr. Seeley pointed out that the skull presented some peculiarities, which made 

 him doubt whether it could rightly be ascribed to Halitherium. He thought 

 possibly it might belong to a new genus ; at the same time he had noticed in the 

 Crag deposits some vertebrae which he thought might be attributed to Halitherium. 



The Chairman was glad to find that so many geologists were disposed to regard 

 the majority of the fossil bones from the Crag as derivative. He had long regarded 

 them as belonging to a Miocene period, and probably a late one, and to a time 

 when this country was united to the continent. When at the Crag period a portion 

 of the surface was submerged, the neighbouring land might, however, have been 

 still inhabited by the old Miocene fauna. 



2. "New Facts bearing on the Inquiry concerning Forms intermediate between 

 Birds and Reptiles." By Henry Woodward, F.R.S., F.G.S. 



The author, after giving a brief sketch of the Sauropsida, and referring especially 

 to those points in which the Pterosaurians approach and differ from birds, spoke of 

 the fossil birds and land reptiles which he considered to link together more closely 

 the Sauropsida as a class. 



The most remarkable recent discoveries of fossil birds are : — 

 I. AjxhcEOpieryx macrura (Owen), a Mesozoic type, which has a peculiar 

 reptilian-like tail, composed of twenty free and apparently unanchylosed cylindrical 

 vertebrae, each supporting a pair of quill-feathers, the last fifteen vertebrae having 

 no transverse processes, and tapering gradually to the end. 



