Hector. — On the Fossil Reptilia of New Zealand. 333 



Art. LII. — On the Fossil Reptilia of New Zealand. By James Hector, 



M.D., F.E.S., Director of the Geological Survey of New Zealand. 



Plates XXVII.— XXXI. 



[Read hefore the Wellington Philoso2jMcal Society, \Zth October, 1873.] 



The first notice of the occurrence in New Zealand strata of representatives of 



the Reptilian fauna characteristic of the mesozoic epoch, was made in 1861, 



when Professor Owen communicated to the British Association a brief 



description of certain fossils that had been discovered by Mr. T. H. Cockbvirn 



Hood, P.G.S., and presented by him to the British Museum. These fossil 



remains were obtained by Mr. Hood in a ravine on one of the tributaries of 



the Waipara River, at the northern extremity of the Canterbiiry plains. They 



comprise the vertebral centra, ribs, and coracoid bones, all belonging to the 



same individual which Professor Owen referred to a new species — Plesiosaurus 



australis.'^ 



No further discovery of Saurian remains was made till after the occurrence 

 of a great flood, in 1868, when Mr. Hood again obtained a large collection, and 

 shipped it to England, unfortunately, by the ship " Mataoka," which was lost 

 on the homeward voyage. Dr. Haast, however, communicated a short accoitnt 

 of this collection to the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury,+ and states that 

 he " made drawings and took measurements of all the more important 

 specimens, so that, in case the collection should not reach its destination, the 

 information, at least, will not be altogether lost to the scientific world." This 

 foresight was most fortunate, as, notwithstanding the great number and variety 

 of the remains since found, that collection appears to have contained the only 

 skull fragment, with jaws and teeth, of a true Sauropterygian that has yet 

 been discovered. 



In 1867 I had visited the locality :|: along with Mr. W. T. L. Travers, and 

 obtained only a few fragments of these fossils ; but after Mr. Hood's second 

 discovery I sent Mr. R. L. Holmes, provided with the requisite appliances, to 

 obtain a more complete collection for the Colonial Museum. Drawings of 

 these, forwarded to Professor Owen, enabled him to add two new species, 

 which he named Plesiosaurus crassicostatus and P. hoodii.§ 



In the following year Dr. Haast made a detailed survey of the district, and 

 obtained a large series of Saurian and other fossils, which are now in the 

 Canterbury Museum. || 



Mr. John Buchanan, of the Geological Survey Department, having some 

 years previously discovered the existence of Belemnite beds at the Amux'i 

 Bluff,. a locality on the East Coast fifty miles north of the Waipara,ir Dr. Haast's 



* Trans. Brit. Ass., 1861, p. 122, et seq. + Trails. N.Z. Inst., Vol. II., p. 186, 



t Prog. Rep. Geol. Surv. N.Z., 1868, p. 9. 

 § Geol. Mag., Feb., 1870, Vol. VII., p. 49, pi. 3. i| Rep. Geol. Surv. N.Z., 1870, p. 5. 



*II Geol. Rep., 1867. 



