AIR-BREATHERS OF THE COAL PERIOD. 163 



Its longer and sharper teeth may have been better suited for de- 

 vouring worms, larvae or soft-skinned fishes, while those of the 

 larger Dendrerpeton were better adapted to deal with the mailed 

 ganoids of the period, or with those smaller reptiles which were 

 more or less protected with bony or horny scales. 



VI. Remains of Skin and Horny Scales. 

 Plate I, Fig. 5; Plate IV, Figs. 22 to 34, and Plate V, Figs. 22 to 29. 



In one of my earliest explorations of the reptile-bearing stumps 

 of the Joggins, I observed on some of the surfaces, patches of a 

 shining black substance, which on minute examination proved to 

 be the remains of cuticle, with horny scales and other appendages. 

 The fragments were preserved ; but I found it impossible to deter- 

 mine with certainty to which of the species whose bones occur 

 with them they belonged, or even to ascertain the precise rela- 

 tions of the several fragments to each other. I therefore merely 

 mentioned them in general terms, and stated my belief that they 

 may have belonged to the species of Hylonomus* More recently 

 other specimens have been obtained, and I have undertaken the 

 detailed examination of the whole. I shall now endeavour to 

 describe the principal or most continuous fragments, and after- 

 ward to consider the probabilities of their having belonged to cer- 

 tain of the reptiles entombed with them. I do this here, rather 

 than under the titles of these several animals, on account of the 

 uncertainty which still rests on the assignment of certain portions 

 of this cuticle to the species in question, and which renders it 

 more convenient to consider these peculiar remains in one place, 

 and to compare the different portions with each other. 



(1) One of my specimens is a flattened portion of cuticle 2£ 

 inches in length. The greater part of the surface is smooth and 

 shining to the naked eye, and under the microscope shows only 

 a minute granulation. A limited portion of the upper, and I sup- 

 pose, anterior part is covered with imbricated scales, which must 

 have been membranous or horny, and generally have a small spot 

 or pore near the outer margin, some having in addition smaller 

 scales or points on their surfaces, (PI. IV, Figs. 22 and 25). In 

 contact with the upper part of this specimen there were many 

 fragments of the skull of Dendrerpeton Oweni. 



Journal of Geological Society, Vol. XVI. 



