Oh. XXY.] AIK-BREATHERS IN THE COAL. 5H 



Oweni, were also found accompanying the larger one, and still retain- 

 ing some of its dermal appendages ; and in the same tree were the 

 bones of a third small lizard-like reptile, Hylonomus Lyelli, 7 inches 

 long, with stout hind limbs, and fore limbs comparatively slender 

 supposed by Dr. Dawson to be capable of walking and running on 

 land* 



In 1854, Prof. Owen described a "sauroid batrachian" {Baphetes 

 planiceps), of the Labyrinthodon family, obtained by Dr. Dawson from 

 the coal of Pictou in jNTova Scotia. In 1859, another species of Hylo- 

 nomus, twice as large as that above mentioned, was met with; and 

 another reptile of the same family, but distinct genus, was obtained 

 by Dr. Dawson, named by Owen Hylerpeton. Lastly, in 1862, Mr. 

 Marsh discovered in the coal-measures of the South Joggins in Nova 

 Scotia, two large caudal biconcave vertebras, supposed at first to be- 

 long to an Enaliosor, and called Eosaurus Acadianus, but which, 

 Mr. Huxley suggests, may probably be referable to a labyrinthodont 

 batrachian. 



Professor Owen had announced the first finding of fossil reptilian 

 remains in British coal-measures in 1853. They were referred to a 

 new genus of Batrachoids allied to Arckeo-osauras, and called Para- 

 batrachv.s. In 1852, a large, new labyrinthodont reptile, Loxomma, 

 from the Edinburgh coal-field, was described by Prof. Huxley, to- 

 gether with a second, from the same series of strata, of another new 

 genus, called Pholidcgaster, a specimen of which, containing the head 

 and nearly the whole vertebral column, measured 44 inches in length. 

 In the same year a third genus, denominated Antkracosaurus, was 

 founded by the same anatomist on a specimen detected by Mr. Pus 

 sel in the Akdrie " black-band " iron of the Glasgow coal-field. This 

 labyrinthodont was about 7 feet long, and the skull 15 inches in 

 length ; thirty-seven teeth were preserved in its jaws, and its vertebras 

 were highly ossified, so as to resemble those of the Triassic labyrintho- 

 donts of the Mastoclonsaurian type, whereas Pholidogaster is sup- 

 posed by Huxley to be more allied to the Arch ego saurian division of 

 labyrinthodonts.f Thus, in nineteen years, the skeletons or bones 

 of twelve or more species of reptiles referred to nine genera have been 

 exhumed from the coal-measures, to say nothing of footprints, some 

 of them, like that represented at fig. 559, seeming to differ from all 

 those to which any of the known bones can belong, 



A single species of land-shell, Pupa vetusta, Dawson, see fig. 561, 

 was mentioned as having been found, in 1852, in the interior of an 

 erect fossil Sigillaria in Nova Scotia, p. 510. Dr. Dawson has since 

 discovered another bed at a much lower level, in which the same shell 

 is very abundant, a bed separated from the tree containing Dendrer- 

 peton by a mass of strata 1217 feet thick, and comprising 21 seams 



* Dawson, Air-Breathers of the Coal in Nova Scotia. Montreal, 1863. 

 f Huxley, Quart. Geol. Journ., 1862, 1863. 



