140 DE. A. SMITH WOODWABD ON [May I907, 



10. On a New Dinosaueian Reptile (Scleromochlus Taylobi, 

 gen. et sp. nov.) from the Teias of Lossiemouth, Elgin. By 

 Aethue Smith Woodward, LLJD., F.R.S., F.L.S., E.G.S., 

 Keeper of the Department of Geology in the British Museum 

 (Natural History). (Read January 9th, 1907.) 



[Plate IX.] 



Although so many types of reptiles have been obtained during 

 recent years * from the Triassic sandstones of Elgin, Mr. William 

 Taylor has lately discovered two examples of a new form which 

 represents still another group. Through his kindness I have had 

 the privilege of studying these two specimens and comparing them 

 with two more imperfect skeletons of the same animal, which 

 occur on a slab of Elgin Sandstone in the late Mr. James Grant's 

 collection, now in the British Museum (No. R 3146). All the 

 specimens show merely impressions of bones in the rock, but they 

 occur in counterpart slabs, and many of their most important 

 features can be readily understood with the aid of wax-squeezes 

 taken from the cavities. 



The four individuals of this new reptile already known are 

 approximately of the same size, each measuring about a decimetre 

 in length to the root of the tail, which is long and slender. They 

 therefore represent a comparatively-diminutive species ; and the 

 lightness of the skeleton, with its hollow bones, suggests an animal 

 of remarkable agility (see the accompanying text-figure, p. 141). 

 The head is relatively large, and the neck short. The fore-limbs 

 are small and delicate ; while the hind-limbs are very large, and 

 evidently adapted for a bipedal running or leaping gait. The more 

 important measurements, in millimetres, are as follows : — 



Length of head 32 



,, presacral vertebral column 53 



„ scapula 10 



„ humerus 19 



„ radius and ulna 19 



,, longest digit of inanus 5 



„ ilium (an tero-posterior) 10 



„ femur 30 



„ tibia and fibula 34 



„ metatarsus 17 



,, proximal phalanges of pes 4 



,, longest digit of pes (approximate) 12 



1 E. T. Newton, 'On Some New Eeptiles from the Elgin Sandstones ' Phil. 

 Trans. Roy. Soc. ser. B, vol. clxxxiv (1893) p. 431 ; and ' Eeptiles from the 

 Elgin Sandstone — Description of Two New Genera ' ibid. vol. clxxxv (1894) 

 p. 573 ; G. A. Boulenger, ' On Reptilian Remains from the Trias of Elgin ' 

 ibid. vol. cxcvi (1903) p. 175 ; and ' On the Characters & Affinities of the 

 Triassic Reptile Telerpeton elginense' Proc. Zool. Soc. 1904, vol. i, pp. 470-81 

 & pis. xxx-xxxii. To the last paper Mr. William Taylor contributes a complete 

 list of the known Triassic Reptiles from the Elgin district, with an account 

 of their distribution. 



