330 Scientific Intelligence. 



8. 3foa or JDinornis of ^"^eio Zealand.— Remsixis of skeletons 

 of fifteen Moas have been discovered along the beach, north of 

 Whangarei Heads, sixty miles north of Auckland, Several human 

 skulls and a complete human skeleton in sitting posture (the usual 

 burying posture among the natives) were found with the Moa 

 bones. Previously, no Moa bones had been found north of Auck- 

 land. — Nature, Feb. 3. 



9. Carnivorous Reptiles having some features of Carnivorous 

 Mammals from the Triassic {f) of South Africa. — Professor 

 OwE>' has described, in a paper read before the Geological Society 

 of London on February 2d, a carnivorous reptile, named by him 

 Cynodracon major, which has the compressed sabre-shaped canines 

 of the Lion of the genus Machct-rodn^, and resembles Carnivores 

 both in the canines and incisors. In the lower jaw the bases of 

 eight incisors and of two canines (very inferior in size to the canines 

 of the upper jaw) are visible, and the canines are separated by a 

 diastema from the incisors. In this character, as in the number 

 of incisors, the fossil resembles a Didelphys. "The left humerus 

 is 10^ inches long, but is abraded at both extremities; it presents 

 characters, in the lidges for muscular attachment, in the provision 

 for the rotation of the forearm, and in the presence of a strong 

 bony bridge for the protection of the main artery and nerve of the 

 forearm, which resemble those occurring in carnivorous mammals, 

 and especially in the Felidse, although these peculiarities are ass^ 

 ciated with others liavinti; no mammalian resemblances." "Prof. 

 Owen discusses these characters in detail, and indicates that there 

 is. in the probably Triassic lacustrine deposits of South Africa, a 



lole group of genera (including Galesaurns, Gynochampsa, Ly- 

 murus, Tigrisuchus, Cynosuchas, Nythosaurus, ticaloposaurus. 



eral name of Theriodon 

 _ ThQ common characters of the Theriodonts are as follows : den- 

 tition of the carnivorous type ; incisors defined by position, ana 

 divided from the molars by a large laniariform c ' ^"'" '''"^" 



of both jaws, the lower canine crossing in front of the upper; no 

 ecto-pterygoids ; humerus with an entepicoulylar foramen ; digital 

 formula of the fore foot 2, 3, 3, 3, 3 phalanges.— Proc. Geol. Soc. 

 of Feb. 2, in Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., for March, 1876. 



^ satin a, changed 



harncters hi/ changing the saltness of the ica.ter in which it lives. 

 -W. J. ScHMANKEwiTSCH anuouuces, that by increasing the salt- 

 ess of the water in w-hich the Artemia salina lives, a moditi- 

 ation goes on from generation to generation, until the caudal 

 >be8 finally disappear, and the form is that in the Artemia MUhl- 

 ausenii; and by reversing the process, the caudal lobes grow 

 ut again and become those of A. mlina. In 1871 the salt marshes 

 bout Odessa contained great numbers of A. salina; the waters 

 aen marked only 8° Baume. Afterward, on the repair of a dyke, 



