Geological Gleanings. 12 S 



to light in the remains of Apateon and Archegosaurus. After 

 these, there were found the footprints and other remains of other 

 reptiles, discovered or described by Goldfuss, Burmeister, Dr. 

 King, Sir C. Lyell, Mr. Lea, H. Von Meyer, Profs. Dawson, 

 Owen, H. D. Rogers, and*E. Hitchcock. The Telerpeton, dis- 

 covered by Dr. ManteU, was obtained from the upper layers of 

 the Elgin sandstones; and these some of the leading English geo- 

 logists have referred to the Old red. Doubts have recently arisen 

 as to their real age, so that, in the present state 'of knowledge we- 

 cannot refer reptile life to a period older than the Coal. However, 

 in view of our as yet imperfect knowledge of the Old red fauna, 

 the question may still be raised whether we have even now reached 

 the period of primoidal reptiles." 



The reptiles of the Devonian are still limited to the little Teler- 

 peton Elginense discovered by Dr. Mantell ; but in the carbonife- 

 rous period new forms have within the last f§w years rapidly in- 

 creased in number. The coal measures of Germany, of the United 

 States, of Nova Scotia and Great Britain, had between 1844 and 

 1854 afforded bones or other remains of seven species referred to 

 five genera, and less distinct evidence perhaps indicating several 

 additional species. Prof. Wyman has now described remains 

 found by Prof. Newberry and Mr. Wheatley in the Ohio coal field, 

 of three additional species of smaller size than some of those pre- 

 viously discovered, but one of them having its anterior limbs and 

 vertebral column preserved along with the skull. To this species 

 Prof. Wyman gives the name of Raniceps Lyellii. Like so many 

 ancient animals it combines in one species characters now dis- 

 tributed ,'between two groups, agreeing with the Anourous ba- 

 trachians, (frogs, &c.,) in the form of the head, length of lower 

 jaAVS, and absence of ribs, and with the Urodela (Newts, &c.,) in. 

 " the regular convex border of the lower jaw, and in the separa- 

 tion of the bones of /he fore arm." The other species, though 

 too imperfect for detailed description, are regarded as deviating 

 still more widely from known forms and probably of higher rank 

 in nature than the ordinary batrachia. 



" If farther investigations should prove them to be the remains 

 of Batraehians, with which they have some affinities, then we 

 shall have a type of which there is no living representative. If 

 they belong to a group higher in the series, they become 

 still more interesting, and give evidence of the existence in the 

 coal formation of animals hitherto referred to later periods."" 



