TRANSACTIONS 



OF 



THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



OF LONDON. 



I. On a Nothosaurian Reptile from the Trias of Lombardy, apparently referable to 

 Lariosaurus. By G. A. Boulenger, F.R.S. 



Keceived October 14th, 1893, read November 7th, 1893. 



[Plate I.] 



xHE Directors of the Senckenberg Museum, Frankfort-on-Main, have, at the 

 suggestion of my friend Prof. O. Boettger, entrusted to me for description a very 

 valuable palseontological specimen, a slab from the Upper Trias of Perledo, near 

 Varenna, on the Lake of Como, Lombardy, with the nearly complete skeleton of a 

 small Nothosaurian ; the counter-slab is also preserved, showing the impression of the 

 skeleton. The fossil was presented to the Senckenberg Museum by the late Dr. Ruppell 

 in 1850, under the name of Macromerosaurus plinii, Curioni. It appears from Curioni's 

 paper (8, p. 166) that, prior to 1847, Ruppell had examined some of the Reptilian 

 remains from those beds, then regarded as Liassic ; one of these specimens he acquired, 

 together with Fish-remains 1 , and subsequently placed in the Museum at Frankfort, 

 where it has remained ever since, apparently ignored of all who have written on this 

 interesting group of early Plesiosaurians. 



Some confusion has arisen with regard to the specimen for which the name Macro- 

 merosaurus plinii was proposed by Curioni. On referring to his first paper (8) 

 published in 1847, it appears as if the name (p. 161) was intended for the Perledo 

 Saurian, of which he gives a detailed description and figure ; whilst the name Lario- 

 saurus balsami applies to the much larger specimen previously noticed by Balsamo- 



1 Described by Deecke, Palaeontogr. lv. 1889, p. 110. 



vol. xiv. — part I. No. 1. — April, 1896. b 



