368 PALEONTOLOGY OF OHIO. 



MoLGOPHis, Cope. 



Proceed. Acad. Nat. Sciences, 1868,220; Trans. Amer. Philos. Society, XIV., 20. 



The characters of this genus are : body long, serpentine, without dermal 

 armature, so far as known ; vertebrie long and broad, with very prominent 

 zygopophyses and moderate neural spines ; ribs large, curved. No limbs 

 or cranium can be ascribed with certainty to the type of this genus. 

 The ribs are long, and though the head is not bifurcate, there appears to 

 be both tubercle and head on the dilated extremity. Where crushed 

 they display a large median vacuity. 



This genus differs from Ophiderpeton, Huxley, in the characters of its 

 dorsal vertebrae, which, in their projecting zygapopihyses, resemble those 

 of Amphiuma. The lack of ventral armature distinguishes it from Oesto- 

 cephalus, while its well-developed ribs separate it from Phlegethontia. 



MOLGOPHIS MACEUEOUS, Cope. 

 Loc. cit, Batracliian Eeptile, Wyman, Amer. Jour. Sci. and Arts, 1858, p. n, fig. x. 



This species is established by remains of two individuals, one embrac- 

 ing sixteen and the other fourteen vertebrae, with ribs. The neural 

 arches, viewed from above, have a V-shaped outline posteriorly, from the 

 fact that the broad zygapophyses meet on the median line and spread 

 out distally over the broad anterior ones adjoining. The latter appear 

 to be somewhat concave, and to border the former exteriorly as well as 

 inferiorly. The base of the neural spine extends to the posterior emar- 

 gination, but not quite to the anterior. The breadth of the dorsal verte- 

 brae above is equal from the emargination behind to the anterior margin 

 of the anterior zygapophysis. 



The ribs are long for a Batrachian, but not long for a Reptile. They 

 are well curved, chiefly near the proximal extremity. The longest I 

 can find measured by a chord equals two vertebrae and two-fifths. Three 

 vertebrae, measured along the median line above, equal eleven lines; one 

 of these is 3.6 lines in width above. This animal has been, like Amphi- 

 uma, a snake-like Batrachian, but probably still larger. How near its 

 affinities to this genus may be can not be ascertained, owing to the want 

 of many important parts of the skeleton, but it differs in the important 

 feature of the large, well-developed ribs. The size of the vertebrae would 

 indicate a body of the size of the common rattle-snake {Caudiaona hor- 

 ridd), and too large for the Brachydectes Newberryi, which is only known 

 from jaws. 



