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1891.] On the Relations of Carettochelys, Ramsay. 631 
ON THE RELATIONS OF CARETTOCHELYS, RAMSAY 
BY G. BAUR. 
I May, 1886, Prof. E. P. Ramsay, (1) of the Australian Museum, 
Sydney, described a peculiar new tortoise under the name of 
Carettochelys insculptus} The description was based on an adult 
female (carapace, eighteen inches in a straight line), which was 
obtained in the Fly River, New Guinea. The new genus was 
referred to the family Trionychidz, forming “a link between the 
river tortoise and the sea turtles.” In 1887 Mr. Boulenger (2) 
placed this genus in a special family (Carettochelydidz) of the 
Pleurodira, for the reason that the specimen was found in New 
Guinea, from which island only Pleurodira are known. The 
characters of this family were given as: “ Plastral bones, nine. 
No epidermic scutes on the shell. Limbs paddle-shaped, with 
only two claws.” : 
Prof. Gill, (3) nearly at the same time, wrote a review of Prof. 
Ramsay’s paper, in which he reached the conclusion that the form 
is the type of a peculiar family, Carettochelyide, and that “it ` 
may quite likely prove to be a Pleurodire.” Prof. Gill makes the 
following remarks: “ But whatever may be the relations of the 
new genus, whether to the cryptodirous or pleurodirous tortoises, 
it has many quite peculiar characters. From all known forms it 
is apparently distinguished by the absence of scuta, the peculiar 
feet,and other characters. Undoubtedly, therefore, the new genus 
does not belong to any of the established modern families, and 
apparently not to any of the extinct ones named, although when 
more is known of Carettochelys, as well as the extinct forms, it 
may turn out that the Papuan animal is related to one of the 
families now regarded as extinct.” 
The family Carettochelydide of the Pleurodira was accepted 
by Mr. Lydekker (4) in the same year, and Hemichelys Ly- 
dekker, from the Lower Eocene of India, referred to it. In this 
lIna preliminary note this form had been considered as a species of Cyclanostex:. 
The species must be named i#scu/pra, not insculptus. 
