﻿Ivi PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



bones, their large conical teeth, striated longitudinally, and the arti- 

 culations of the spinous processes with the vertebrse. Until very 

 lately it was imagined by some geologists that this ichthyic type was 

 the more highly developed, because it took the lead at the head of 

 Nature before the class of reptiles had been created. For it was 

 taken for granted that reptiles were first introduced into the earth 

 in the Permian period, many palaeontologists considering that the 

 limits of our knowledge of the existence of any class of animals in 

 past time, coincided exactly with the date of its creation. 



At length in the year 1844, M. Herman von Meyer described, under 

 the name of Apateon pedestris, the first skeleton of a reptile from 

 the coal-measures. He supposes this animal, found at Minister- Appel, 

 in Rhenish Bavaria, to be nearly related to the Salamanders. Three 

 years later, in 1847, Professor von Dechen discovered in large con- 

 cretionary nodules of clay-ironstone, in the coal-field of Saarbriick, 

 the skeletons of no less than three distinct species of air-breathing 

 reptiles, which were figured and described by the late Professor 

 Goldfuss, under the generic name of Archegosaurus. These valuable 

 additions to the carboniferous fauna were procured at the village of 

 Lebach, between Strasburg and Treves. The species of ichthyolites 

 and coal-plants in the accompanying shales leave no doubt of the 

 exact age of the formation. The largest of the three species, called 

 Archegosaurus Decheni, must have been three feet six inches long. 

 Fortunately, the skull, teeth, and the greater portion of the skeleton, 

 nay, even a large part of the imbricated covering or horny scales of the 

 skin, have been faithfully preserved in two of the specimens. They 

 were considered by Goldfuss to be saurians, but Herman von Meyer 

 regards them as most nearly allied to the Labyrinthodon, and there- 

 fore connected with the batrachians as well as the lizards. The 

 remains of the extremities leave no doubt that they were quadrupeds, 

 " provided," says Von Meyer, " with hands and feet terminating in 

 distinct toes ; but these limbs were weak, serving only for swimming 

 or creeping." The same anatomist has pointed out certain points of 

 analogy between their bones and those of the Proteus anguinus ; and 

 Prof. Owen has observed to me that they make an approach to the 

 Proteus in the shortness of their ribs*. 



Even before any intelligence of these European discoveries had 



* Goldfuss, Keue Jenaische Lit. Zeit. 1848 ; and Von Meyer, Quart. Journ. 

 Geo!. Soc. vol. iv. Part 2. p. 51. 



