LABYRINTHODONTIA. 207 



Sp. Bcqjhetes planiceps. — This is founded on part of a fossil 

 cranium from the Pictou coal, Nova Scotia, measuring 7 inches 

 across the orbits, belonging to the present order by the num- 

 ber, size, and disposition of the teeth ; by the proportions and 

 mode of connection of the premaxillaries, maxillaries, nasals, 

 pre-frontals and frontals ; and by the resultant peculiarly 

 broad and depressed character of the skull, the bones of which 

 also present the same well-marked external sculpturing as in 

 the Labyrinthodonts. The form of the end of the muzzle, or 

 upper jaw, in the Pictou coal specimen, best accord with that 

 in the Capitosaurus and Metopias of Von Meyer and Bur- 

 meister ; but the orbits had been evidently larger and of a 

 different form than in the reptiles so called. 



Being thus introduced at the carboniferous period to the 

 labyrinthodont order, which attained its full development in the 

 triassic period, the more decisive evidences and typical illustra- 

 tions of that extinct group of reptiles will next be described. 



At the period of the deposition of the new red sandstone, 

 in the present counties of Warwick and Cheshire, the shores 

 of the ancient sea, which were then formed by that sandy 

 deposit, were trodden by reptiles having the essential bony 

 characters of the modern Batrachia, but combining these with 

 other bony characters of crocodiles, lizards, and ganoid fishes ; 

 and exhibiting all under a bulk which, as made manifest by 

 the fossils and footprints, rivalled that of the largest crocodiles 

 of the present day. The form of the Labyrinthodonts, if we 

 may judge by the great breadth and flatness of the skull, and 

 the proportions of certain bones, seems to have been something 

 between that of the toad and land-salamander. 



The smooth-skinned Batrachians have no fixed type of 

 external form like the existing higher orders of reptiles, but 

 some, as the broad and flat-bodied toads and frogs, most 

 resemble the Chelonians, especially the soft-skinned mud- 

 tortoises, (Trionyx) ; other Batrachians, as the Cwcilice, resemble 



