Embedded Reptiles. By the President. 50S 



ancient sort ?" Certainly lie is our own, the veritable Hana 

 temporaria, and no other. 



Even had he been found under much less accountable condi- 

 tions, we could not, for the following sufficient reasons alone, 

 allow him to be co-eval with the stone — unless, indeed, we were 

 to decide that he is the most ancient Batrachian ever discovered ; 

 unless "he was the first that ever burst into that silent sea." 

 The facts are these — 



The Soremerston limestone is near the base of the Carbon- 

 iferous series which are Primary, during which epoch there are 

 the earliest, but scanty indications of reptiles ; and although it 

 is true that during the succeeding Secondary era reptiles were 

 very abundant, no Batrachian (with one notable and rather 

 hybrid exception) has ever been found in any strata older than 

 the Tertiary ; while Rana does not make its appearance till we 

 come to the Pleiocene or newest Tertiary, which was laid down 

 many millions of years after the Carboniferous limestone ; and 

 nothing is known of our species, Rana temporaria, till the Post- 

 Pleiocene, which, geologically speaking is yesterday. The 

 exception to which I alluded is the Labyrinthodon order of reptiles. 



Labyrinthodon giganteum, " a frog-like reptile as big as an ox," 

 is found in the Kiiper, or Upper New Red Sandstone, the oldest 

 Secondary, and was a Batrachian except in one important par- 

 ticular, that being, that he breathed air, like crocodiles, lizards, 

 and other Saurians, and did not swallow it like frogs ; and so, 

 having affinities to both families, he is generally termed a 

 " sauroid-batrachian." 



The commencement of the existence of this family of Sauroid- 

 batrachians is, however, of greater antiquity, as their relics occur 

 in formations of the Carboniferous epoch, fossil evidence of the 

 existence of more than one member of it having been afforded 

 by the coal of Germany and Nova Scotia. 



About this famous Labyrinthodon, Frank Buckland tells us 

 that he used to make frogs walk on plaster of Paris, to shew the 

 similarity of their foot-prints with those of their supposed ances- 

 tors in his father's museum at Oxford. 



I may mention that the honourable position of " the most 

 ancient reptile known" was for some time held by Telerpeton 

 Mginense ; because the sandstone wherein it was discovered, was 

 supposed to be Old Eed, older than the coal measures ; whereas 

 it is now known to be Triassic or New Eed, which is newer. 



