PROF. OWEN ON THE AFFINITIES OF THE MOSASATTRIDJS. 753 



affinities. He objected to the unnecessary multiplication of new 

 Orders for the reception of fossil synthetic types. 



Mr. Hulke thought that it was impossible to hesitate between 

 the Lacertilia and Ophidia in fixing on the affinities of the Mosa- 

 sauridae, as the cranial and nearly all the characters were certainly 

 very closely allied to those of the Lacertilia. 



Prof. Owen, in reply, contended that even if the Mosasauridse 

 were the type of a new Order, yet the name of Pythoyiomorpha was 

 an unfortunate and misleading one. By a comparison of the rela- 

 tions of the Order of Carnivora to the rest of the class of the 

 Mammalia, however, he illustrated the inconvenience and confusion 

 that would be produced in our zoological classification by raising 

 such a group as the Mosasauridae into a distinct Order. 



3d 2 



