10 AMPHIBIA AND PISCES OF THE PERMIAN OF NORTH AMERICA 



Order Lahyrinthodontia. 



Suborder Lahyrinthodontia vera. 

 Family Diplospondylidcs. 



Genus Cricotus. 

 Family Archegosaurides. 



Genus Trimerorhachis. 

 Family uncertain. 



Eryops {Rhachitomus, Epicordylus, Parioxys). 



In 1890 Lydekker (58) described a lower jaw and an intercentrum from 

 the Karroo system of South Africa, which he referred provisionally to Eryops. 

 There is no doubt that these specimens belong to a totally different genus 

 from Eryops; the only resemblance between the two consists in characters 

 common to all the primitive Temnospondyli. The specimens were referred 

 to as E. oweni in the "Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society," but 

 later, in the "Catalogue of the Fossil Reptiles and Amphibians of the British 

 Museum," the species is called E. africanus. 



Gadow in 1896 (51) proposed that the genera Eryops and Cricotus be 

 placed BxslOTi.g^ii& Reptilia, and, later, in 1901, in "The Cambridge Natural 

 History" (52), he formed the subclass Proreptilia to receive them. This prop- 

 osition was based on the conclusion that the vertebrae of these forms are 

 gastrocentrous in origin, an idea which has not been generally accepted. 



In 1895 Cope described a new amphibian with a distinct carapace of 

 transverse plates as Dissorhophus multicinctus (43). He later spoke of this 

 form as a new genus of Ganocephalous Stegocephali (47). 



In 1896 Cope pubHshed in the "Proceedings of the American Philo- 

 sophical Society" the first of two papers on the "Paleozoic Reptilian order 

 Cotylosauria " (45); this was preceded by an abstract published in the 

 "American Naturalist" (44). In these papers there were described as new: 

 Zatrachys micropthalmus, Z. conchigerus, Trimerorhachis mesops, Diplocaulus 

 limbatus. 



In the "American Naturalist" of the same year (46) he described a new 

 family Otoccelidcz with two genera Otoccelus and Conodectes, which he referred 

 to the Reptilia. As shown in the body of this paper the first genus is an 

 amphibian and the name is synonymous with Dissorhophus; the second is 

 probably identical with Seymouria, a Cotylosaur. This paper and a second 

 in the November "Naturalist" (47) were in part a preliminary of his 

 "Second Contribution to the History of the Cotylosauria" (48). In the 

 Second Contribution he named one new species of Trimerorhachis, T. 

 conangulus. 



In 1897 Williston reported the occurrence of Permian vertebrates from 

 Cowley County, Kansas (67, 68). 



In the second edition of his lectures on the Vertebrates, pubHshed in 1898, 

 after his death (49), Cope adopted the new order of Elasmobranchs proposed 

 by Smith- Woodward, so his divisions are Acanthodii, Icthyotomi, and Selachii. 

 The classification of the Pisces and Amphibia is otherwise unchanged. 



