u84 



CLASS REPTILIA. 



and the supratemporal fossa is exceedingly small. The nasals 

 reached the premaxillse and completely surrounded the nares — thus 

 presenting a feature unknown in any other vertebrate ; while the 

 orbits were somewhat irregular in contour, and directed in part 

 laterally, and in part frontally. The teeth are sharp and pointed, 



Fig. 1083. — Frontal and palatal aspects of the cranium of Phytosaurus cylindricodon. The 

 anterior vacuities in the upper figure are the anterior nares, and the slits in the lower figure 

 are the posterior nares. (After Meyer.) 



with serrated antero-posterior ridges (carinas) ; and in the anterior 

 part of the jaw (fig. 1084) are subcircular in transverse section, 

 but posteriorly are laterally compressed. There was no ventral 

 In the apparently nearly allied Stagonolepis, of the Upper 

 Trias (Keuper) of Elginshire, there 

 was, however, a well-developed ventral 

 dermal armour ; the teeth were blunt 

 and swollen ; and the pattern of the 

 sculpture on the dorsal scutes was 

 different. This genus was originally 

 founded upon the evidence of these 

 scutes, which were thought to have belonged to a Ganoid Fish. 

 The name Episcoposaurus has been applied to a North American 

 Triassic form which is regarded by Professor Cope as allied to 

 Phytosaurus. 



Family Parasuchid^e. — The single genus Parasuchus occurs 

 in the same lower Mesozoic horizon (Maleri beds) in India which 



armour. 



Fig. 1084. — Tooth of Phytosaurus 

 carolinensis ', from the Trias of 

 South Carolina. Reduced. 



