SKULL AND OTHEB BONES OF LOXOMMA ALLMANNI. 197 



Viewed thus the skull of Loxomma resembles generally that of 

 Archegosaurus and the Crocodilia, and of the latter the Alligator 

 rather than the Crocodile ; the snout, however, is broader than 

 that of the Alligator, as is the whole skull, and the posterior 

 lateral expansions of the cranium for the articulation of the 

 mandible project a good deal further backward beyond the occi- 

 put than in the above-named animals. 



The length of the skull along the median line, from the end 

 of the snout to the posterior edge of the occiput, is twelve and a 

 half inches, from the same point to the end of the lateral expan- 

 sion above the articular condyle fourteen and a half inches. 



The breadth from side to side at the widest part, which is a 

 little in front of the posterior edge of the occiput, is eight inches, 

 over the posterior ends of the orbital vacuities seven inches, over 

 the anterior ends of the same five inches, and over the broadest 

 part of the snout three and a half inches. The snout is broadly 

 rounded oil and rather flattened in front. 



This upper surface of the skull is nearly perfect ; the sculp- 

 turing, the mucus - grooves, the nostrils, the orbital vacuities, 

 the parietal foramen, the temporal fossae leading to the external 

 ears, are all distinct. 



Each bone can, more or less clearly, be seen surrounded by 

 suture ; the sculptured pattern on the surface is the same as that 

 described in the notice of Loxomma in the "Nat. Hist. Trans, 

 of Northumberland and Durham, Yol. IV., pp. 201, 1871, and 

 390, 1872, namely, "the peculiar honeycombed or reticular 

 structure ;" but it is distinguishable from that of the other 

 Labyrinthodonts . 



On examining closely the hollows or pits of this surface, both 

 of the cranium and mandible, one, two, or three minute but 

 well-defined openings are seen passing into the bone, but only 

 penetrating its outer table ; when three of these exist in the 

 same pit they are placed in a straight line : their use is enigma- 

 tical ; perhaps they lodged minute glands for lubrication of the 

 skin of the head. The skin we infer to have been naked. 



The mucus -grooves on the bones, of which, there are two 



