RESTORATIOK 279 



foot bones have been found dissociated, and probably a large part of 

 the material must be worked over before the feet are found in all their 

 natural articulations, inasmuch as it required the working out of six or 

 seven feet and four or five hands of Varanosauriis from the same blocks 

 before every detail of the structure of the extremities of that genus was 

 determined. The foot bones thus have been arranged in the mounted 

 skeleton after those of Trematops and Eryops, and it is quite certain 

 there can not be much error. Nevertheless, it is expected that even these 

 details will be determined in the course of a year or two. As is stated in 

 the description, the precise lengths of the tenth to the eighteenth ribs 

 could not be determined from the single specimen, as also the precise 

 structure of the arches of three or four of the proximal caudal vertebrge. 

 These have been restored, and it is not at all probable that the real bones 

 when found will make any discernible difference in the mounted skeleton. 



Everything else, to the smallest details of the mounted skeleton, is bone ; 

 the only plaster used was that necessary to cement the pieces together 

 when broken in preparation. Furthermore, the posture of the skeleton 

 is almost exactly that of the fossil as it was preserved in the matrix. 

 Upon the whole I doubt whether there is another mounted skeleton of an 

 extinct reptile or amphibian about which there is so little of error or 

 with so little restoration as the present one. 



The creature as mounted presents an almost absurd appearance, with 

 its large head and pectoral region, absence of neck, and short tail. It is 

 very certain that it possessed no other dermal ossifications than those of 

 the median dorsal carapace, and it would seem almost as certain that the 

 creature was aquatic or largely amphibious in its habits. Almost frog- 

 like in appearance, it doubtless had more or less froglike habits. What 

 the significance of the dermal carapace was I am at a loss to suggest. 

 That it could have been of protection to the creature seems more than 

 doubtful, whatever may have been its use in Dissorophus, where it cov- 

 ered the whole dorsal region. But this coincidence is remarkable : With 

 an external turtle-like ear opening, it had also the beginning of a turtle- 

 like carapace. And this parallelism is also seen in Diadecfes, a reptile 

 with dorsal dermal plates and turtle-like ears. It is quite possible that 

 the toes may have been a trifle longer than they are shown in the mounted 

 skeleton — that I hope to determine later, but it is not probable, judging 

 from the considerable number of phalangeal bones that have been found 

 with the skeletons. That the animal was a swimmer I do not doubt, and 

 in all probability the feet were webbed — they were certainly not clawed. 

 Whatever may have been the habits of the creature, it, with its nearly 



