FOSSIL REPTILES. 273 



is the hinder part of a dorsal huckler, distinguished by three 

 projecting ridges in its anterior and most hollow part. 



Many singularities are observable in the arrangement of these 

 bones. The last two ribs join each other in front of a very 

 small dorsal piece, which is followed by another very large, and 

 triangular. This has got another very small one at each of its 

 sides. Then come the last two dorsal pieces, both tolerably 

 broad. It is not without example to see, in the emydes or tor- 

 toises of the present day, ribs thus united to one another along 

 the dorsal line, and causing to disappear or contracting much 

 the dorsal plates which should separate them. 



A head was found in the same formation, in a fragmentary 

 state. It was broken in such a manner behind, that nothing 

 was left but the anterior paries of the os tympani. The poste- 

 rior frontal is broader than in the emys of Europe, but not so 

 broad as in the expansa or serpentina. It does hot cover the 

 temple behind until just opposite the anterior edge of the tym- 

 panum, as is usual in the common emydes. But the parietal 

 does not unite with it to cover the rest of this foss, which shows 

 that it did not belong to a marine tortoise. The land-tortoises 

 are also equally excluded from any claim to this specimen, be- 

 cause in them the posterior frontal is much more narrow. The 

 size of the orbit, shortness of the nose and muzzle, the marked 

 emargination behind of the maxillary edge, all exist in this 

 head, the same as in the common emydes. 



Two plates of the dorsal series found in the same locality, 

 were examined by the Baron. Their form was an almost regular 

 hexagon, arched in the longitudinal direction in the middle, 

 and they were very remarkable for their extreme thickness. The 

 plates of the emys serrata approach most nearly to the figure 

 of these, but their hexagon is far from being so regular. 



These specimens, and several others, which it would be 

 tedious to dwell upon, perfectly establish, in the opinion of M. 

 Cuvier, the existence of numerous remains of two large 

 and unknown emydes in the quarries of Soleure. Another 

 bone, which seemed to be a fragment of a breast-piece, even 



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