F. B. Loomis — Turtles from the Upper Harrison Beds. 21 



end ones being about 25 mm long ; and the next to the last only 

 about 15 mm . 



On the under sides of the feet and along the forelimb up to 

 the elbow, and presumably under the tail, numerous denticles 

 occur. Along one fore limb over 50 were found. As Hay 

 has suggested, these helped to close the openings at the front 

 and rear of the shell. They are characteristic of these large 

 forms ; and, judging from the fact that in every species the 

 skeleton has been preserved, they may well have been most 

 effective in completing the armature. They may be used to 

 bind together into a subordinate group such Testudinse as 

 possess them. 



Testudo brev'isterna sp. nov. 



The type of this species is ISTo. 2006 in the Amherst Collec- 

 tion and was found in the Upper Harrison beds, on Muddy 

 Creek in the north edge of Laramie Co., Wyoming. The type 

 includes the carapace, plastron, skull, shoulder girdle, fore 

 limb (except foot), pelvis and the hind limb (except foot). 

 The skeletal portions were found within the shell and indicate 

 that the turtle died while withdrawn. It apparently lay some 

 time before being buried, as the bones are in many cases eaten 

 into, either by animals or decay. This specimen was found in 

 close proximity to the skeleton of Merychyus minimus, which 

 marks the beds on Muddy Creek as Upper Harrison. 



The turtles nearest in the arrangement of their plates to 

 Testudo brevisterna are T. vaga from the Pawnee Creek beds 

 and T. edae from the Upper Harrison, both of these agreeing 

 in having only neurals 1 and 3 tetragonal, while the second is 

 octagonal : but in T. brevisterna the fourth neural is hex- 

 agonal, while in both the other forms it is octagonal. T. edae 

 is further isolated by having only seven neurals. The species 

 T brevisterna is peculiar in the abrupt way the carapace falls 

 off behind, the rear portion of the shell being almost vertical, 

 and its middle portion extending below the plastron, thus 

 practically closing the rear of the shell. 



The skull of this specimen is nearly complete, only the left 

 quadrate region and the basioccipital being lost. In this skull 

 there are such marked peculiarities that, among the few 

 Testudinse of this type^ the writer finds no other species with 

 which to compare it. The skull is wide and short, being as 

 wide across the quadrate region as it is long from the snout to 

 the occipital condyle. It is very low and the arcades are 

 heavy. The large prefrontals (18 mm along the median line) 

 almost exclude the frontals from bordering on the orbit. The 

 small frontals (12 mm long) are much reduced, the larger parie- 

 tals overshadowing them. The vault of the palate is very low 



