PERMO-CARBONIFEROUS VERTEBRATES FROM NEW MEXICO. Q 



The vertehrcB are typically temnospondylous. There are three short series 

 of vertebree, one with the armor plates attached (fig. 3 c). In this the neural 

 spines are short and heavy and the neural expansions are firmly attached to the 

 spines; a careful microscopic examination of the broken surface reveals no trace 

 of a suture or any interruption of the course of the bone fibers as preserved. The 

 diapophyses are simple broad plates directed outward, with the single articular 

 face directly slightly forward at the anterior end, as is common. There is no indi- 

 cation that the ribs were other than single-headed. In another short series of 

 vertebras the intercentra and the pleurocentra are preserved ; the former are simple 

 without any process for the rib, as in Aspidosaurus glascocki Case, but the condi- 

 tion is such that it is impossible to say whether there was a facet or not. The 

 pleurocentra are small elements of indefinite form in the specimen. 



There is a single detached fragment showing a series of armor plates, as men- 

 tioned above. This is bent upon itself so that at one end the ventral faces of the 

 plates are in contact. The descending process of the anterior of the first pair of 

 plates is very slender and could not have joined any of the vertebrae preserved. 

 There is no descending process on the second plate. In the posterior plate there 

 is also an indication of a descending plate, but this is less certain than in the first. 

 If these plates came from the same animal as the vertebrae they can only have 

 come from the caudal region, in which no plates occur in Cacops or in the Yale 

 specimen of Aspidosaurus novomexicanus ; if from another animal, they represent 

 a form as yet undescribed. 



A few poorly preserved phalanges show that the foot was broad and short. 



