NOTES AND LITERATURE 



RECENT CONTRIBUTIONS TO A KNOWLEDGE OF THE 

 EXTINCT AMPHIBIA 



The past few months have witnessed an unusual activity 

 among paleontologists in behalf of the extinct Amphibia. There 

 have been several rather extensive papers and an important 

 memoir on the group issued within the last twelve months. It is 

 to be hoped that many other investigators will come to be inter- 

 ested in this group of vertebrates, for it is only by descriptions 

 and discussions that we shall ever attain any adequate conception 

 of the relationships of these highly interesting and important 

 forms. The writer is of the opinion that the present conception 

 is capable of considerable improvement and in order to facilitate 

 this improvement he offers a review of the recent literature on 

 the group. 



Dr. A. Smith Woodward (1) has described an interesting new 

 amphibian from the ' ' Oil Shale, at Airly, New South Wales. ' ' Dr. 

 Woodward locates his form in the genus Bothriceps of Huxley. 

 The skull and greater part of the vertebral column with the ribs 

 and a portion of the right arm are preserved. It is described 

 as a new species under the name Bothriceps major, but as this 

 term had already been used by Lydekker for the reception of the 

 uncertain Pctrophnjue major of Owen 1 it will be necessary for 

 the Australian specimen to receive a new name, for which the 

 term Bothriceps ,cno<hcar<li would not be inappropriate. Dr. 

 Woodward allies the form with the Arehegosaurida?, but the 

 reviewer is rather inclined to think that the Tuditanid* would 

 be its nearer relatives. This is the third form described from 

 the Hawkesbury formation of New South Wales. Further 

 search will undoubtedly reveal other Paleozoic amphibia. It will 

 be noticed in this as in so many other Paleozoic localities where 

 dossil amphibia are found, that nearly every new specimen repre- 

 sents an unknown form, thus indicating the diversity and age of 

 the group. The known species from the Hawkesbury formation 

 are: Bothriceps austral*.* Iluxlew Bothriceps icooelwardi and 

 Platyceps wUkinsoni Stephens. 



Dr. S. W. Williston has described in some detail (2) the 

 1 Cat. Fossil Amphb. and Rept. Brit. Museum, Pt. IV, p. 174. 

 375 



