ETTNOTOSAUEUS APEICANUS PKOM BEAUFORT WEST. 583 



43. On a New B-eptile from Welte Veeden (Beaufoet West), 

 EuNOTOSAUEUs AFEiCAifus (Seeley). By H. G. Seeley, Esq., 

 E.E.S., E.L.S., E.G.S., Professor of Geography and Lecturer in 

 Geology in King's College, London. (Bead June 22nd, 1892.) 



Wheit I visited Welte Yreden, near Beaufort West, Cape Colony, 

 in August 1889, Mr. L. Pienaar gave me a small ovate concretion 

 which contained the dorsal region of a new reptile. As preserved it 

 is 7*5 centimetres long and 5'75 centimetres wide. 



It shows on the ventral aspect the under surfaces of seven con- 

 secutive dorsal vertebrae. These centrums are more slender and 

 elongated than in any South African fossil previously known. They 

 decrease in length from front to hack. The first (which may he thie 

 first dorsal) is fully 1-25 centim. long, while the seventh is 0-75 

 centim. long, and is probably the last dorsal or lumbar vertebra, 

 since the pubis is found immediately behind it. These vertebrae in 

 form and number suggest the Chelonian type. They are of an 

 elongated hour-glass form, and relatively longer than in Teleosaurs. 

 The centrum appears to be hollow, but this condition is probably the 

 effect of deep penetration of the conical notochordal substance, as in 

 Mesosaurus, and the vertebrae referred by Sir E. Owen to Ta/pino- 

 cephalus. A conical cavity penetrates the posterior end of the 

 sixth centrum, and apparently the anterior end of the first, so that 

 the constriction in the middle length of the centrum is due to the 

 tapering away of these conical cups. The articular faces are not 

 exposed, but are inferred to be approximately circular, and the 

 under surface of the centrum is rounded from side to side. In the 

 seventh vertebra a slight lateral widening is seen in front, towards 

 the neural arch. (See fig. 1, p. 584.) 



The neural canal is fairly large and rather wider than high, but 

 is only exposed by fracture of the neural arch on the dorsal surface. 

 There is no indication of such transverse expansion of the neural 

 arch as is seen in the Pareiasauria and Mesosauria, so far as can be 

 judged from the bony tissue preserved. The neural spine is com- 

 pressed as shown in the first vertebra, but there is no evidence of its 

 length. There is no satisfactory evidence that transverse processes 

 were developed ; and the ribs were certainly attached closely to the 

 sides of the neural arches, much as in Chelonians, but apparently 

 more widely along the side of the arch. 



The ribs are remarkably massive. They are long and convexly 

 curved, deep and convex from side to side in the proximal ventral 

 portions, which are only exposed obliquely on the posterior aspect 

 where the ribs are crushed downward and forward. Above this 

 powerful support there is a thin plate which extends beyond the 

 inflated inferior portion of the rib, so as to give an antero-posterior 

 extent of about 1 centimetre. Hence the ribs appear to be as wide 

 as the vertebrae are long. This expanded superior layer is broken 



