1866.] HUXLEY TELEKPETON ELGINENSE. 83 



equal and longest, each, having a leng*th of 0-5 in. Each exhibits, 

 very distinctly, three hourglass-shaped phalanges and a terminal 

 pointed and slightly curved ungual phalanx. A fifth phalanx 

 appears to be interposed between the third and the ungual pha- 

 langes, in the outermost of these two digits. The digit on the inner 

 side of the middle one is 0*35 in. long, and contains only three 

 phalanges, two constricted in the middle and articular at each end, 

 and the third ungual. 



The innermost digit of all has a proximal phalanx 0"15 in. long, 

 with both ends articular, and constricted in the middle. I think I 

 can trace the impression of a second curved ungual phalanx lying 

 across the next digit. 



The outermost digit is very extraordinary; for it presents only 

 two phalanges, one proximal, 0-27 in. in length, or as long as the 

 proximal two phalanges of the longest digits, and a strong terminal 

 ungual phalanx. This is so unlike the ordinary character of the fifth 

 digit in Lacertilian Eeptiles, that I was inclined at one time to 

 think that the foot had been turned round, and presented its plantar 

 instead of its dorsal aspect to the eye. But its connexion with the 

 tibia and fibula, and the numerical relations of the phalanges of the 

 other digits, are insuperable obstacles to the adoption of this view ; 

 and I can only suppose that what I have termed the " inner" digit 

 is the hallux, and that the two longest digits are the third and the 

 fourth. 



From the description of the organization of Telerpeton Elginense 

 which has now been given, it is obvious that this animal is one of 

 the Beptilia devoid of the slightest indication of affinity with the 

 AmpJiihia. It is Saurian in all its characters ; and if we inquire to 

 what division of the Sauria Telerpeton belongs, there appears to me 

 to be no doubt that it must be referred to the true Lacertilia, and 

 among them to the suborder Kionocrania of Stannius, which con- 

 tains all the modem Lizards — though I cannot make sure, from the 

 present specimen, that it possessed a columella. 



It will probably be objected that the concave articular faces of 

 the centra of the vertebrae constitute an objection to this view, recent 

 Lacertilia usually having concavo-convex vertebral centres. But, 

 though Meckel pointed out the circumstance forty years ago, it has 

 not always been duly remembered that biconcave vertebral centres, 

 much more deeply excavated than those of Telerpeton appear to have 

 been, are to be met with among the existing Geckos *. 



I have referred to the difficulty of ascertaining the precise mode 

 of implantation of the teeth in Telerpeton. If, as I believe, this 

 Lizard is not Thecodont but Acrodont, the only other important 



* See Meckel's ' System der vergleichenden Anatomie,' Theil ii. Abth. 1. 

 p. 427 (1824) : — " Andere dagegen, namentlich Gecko, verhaltnissmassig doch 

 nur eine geringe Anzahl, verhalten sich wie die Saugethiere oder noch richtiger 

 den Fischen ahnlich ; indem der Korper vom imd hinten eine betrachtliche , 

 mit eiaer Knoi'pelbandmasse angefiillte, trichterformige Hohle bat, wodurch 

 er aus zwei Kegeln zusammengesetzt erscheint." 



