TKE TRIAS OF GRAAFP EEII^T, S. AFEICA. 425- 



DiSCTJSSIOlS'. 



Prof. Seeley, after having had the opportunity of inspecting the 

 specimens, by the courtesy of Prof. Owen, had arrived at the same 

 conclusions with the author as to the distinctness of this form. He 

 was not able to follow the author in dividing the reptiles of South 

 Africa into Dinosauria, Anomodontia, and Theriodontia, and asked 

 Prof. Owen to state how these groups differ in vertebral characters, 

 that we might judge of the affinities of the fossil. All seemed to 

 him to show remarkable mammalian resemblances, as had been 

 pointed out by the author ; but he doubted whether this implied 

 the evolution of Mammalian orders from the South- African reptiles, 

 as Prof. Owen had suggested. He alluded to the remarkable modifi- 

 cation of the humerus found in the Mole, as throwing light on the 

 singular modifications of form which may result from burrowing- 

 habits ; and suggested that, as the OrnitJiorhynchus also burrows 

 and its resemblances to the fossil do not extend to the more 

 important parts of the skeleton, the correspondence was more likely 

 to show merely that the humeral bones were used in similar ways 

 in the fossil reptile. 



Prof. Owen stated that the orders of the fossil reptiles which he 

 had established were distinguished by characters as well marked as 

 those which separate some of the orders of living Reptilia. In reply 

 to Prof. Seeley he pointed out that the form of the phalanges in the 

 form he described are those which belong to omnivorous forms like 

 the Anomodonts, and not to carnivorous forms like the Theriodonts.,. 



