
632 The American Naturalist. [July, 
form we have five neuralia in contact with each other, and there 
was probably a small mesoplastron present, according to Lydekker. 
To conclude from the figure, it seems that there were eleven 
peripherals on each side, as in the Pleurodira, for instance. I 
believe, therefore, that it is more likely a Pleurodiran than a near 
relative of Carettochelys. 
In 1890 I published a short note on Carettochelys, (5) in which 
I doubted the Pleurodiran nature of the genus. I said: “It is 
true it belongs the Papuarian region, in which, so far, only 
Pleurodira have been found. There are some characters, however, 
not seen in the Pleurodira, but in another group of Chelonians 
consisting of the families Cinosternidz, Staurotypidz, and Pseudo- 
trionychide. It is only in this group that we find twenty-one 
peripheralia (marginal bones), as in Carettochelys; the neural 
bones are also reduced, and the dermal shields have disappeared 
entirely, as in Pseudotrionyx; to the latter character, however, I 
attach little value, as it may occur in any family. 
“It seems to me that the systematic position of Carettochelys 
is far from being clear. How easily could the whole question be 
settled! Mr. Ramsay would do a great service to science if he 
would undertake to have the cervicals and the skull extracted, or 
the cervicals alone, if he fears for the skull. This could be done 
withqut injuring the specimen, and the structure of these parts 
would show at once the affinities of this peculiar genus.” 
Not doubting that Carettochelys would prove a very important 
form of the Testudinata, I wrote to Prof Ramsay, asking him if 
he could not examine the osteology of the animal, and publish a . 
note about it. A short time before I received an answer I read 
Dr. Alexander Strauch’s Bemerkungen über die Schildkröten- 
sammlung im zoologischen Museum der kaiserlichen Akademie 
der Wissenschaften zu St. Pétersburg. (6) ; 
Dr. Strauch, whose classification of the tortoises is far behind 
the times, and certainly not accepted by anybody—(he does not 
distinguish the Pleurodira from the Cryptodira, but places them 
in one group, Testudinida, of the same rank as the Cheloniida! 
so : The unfortunate separation of Dermochelys as a suborder Atheca | 
— 5 ie kept up !)—places Carettochelys in a special “Abtheiliing ss 


