380 



Prof. Owen. On the Gigantic Land-lizard. [Feb. 3, 



II. " Description of some Remains of the Gigantic Land-lizard 

 {Megalania prisca, Owen) from Australia. Part III." By 

 Professor Owen, C.B., F.R.S., &c. Received January 20, 

 1881. 



(Abstract.) 



In this communication the author describes additional parts of the 

 Megalania, reconstructed from fossils exhumed by Mr. George Fred. 

 Bennett, at the same locality as the subjects of Part II, and sub- 

 sequently transmitted. They were found about thirty feet distant 

 from the spot where the cranial fossils were imbedded, and are 

 deemed by their discoverer to be parts of the skeleton of the same 

 individual. 



The recognisable restorations constitute the termination and a 

 detached annular segment of the bony sheath, with one inclosed 

 vertebra, of the tail. The average thickness of the sheath's sub- 

 stance is one inch ; the coalesced portion includes three segments ; 

 and, save the last, these with the antecedent detached segment sup- 

 port osseous conical processes, in structure resembling the horn-cores 

 of the cranium, but of larger dimensions. Each segment supports 

 two pairs of such solid cones or cores. The transverse diameter 

 of the antepenultimate segment taken across the tips of a pair of 

 cores is eleven inches ; the same diameter of the area of such annular 

 sheath is five inches ; the vertical diameter of the exterior of the 

 sheath is five inches and a-half. These dimensions support Mr. 

 Bennett's conclusion as to their relation to the skull ; and, supposing 

 the lizard's body originally entombed not to have undergone a dis- 

 location affecting the two extremities now brought to light, their 

 relative distance agrees with the length of the animal, estimated from 

 proportions of previously described vertebras. 



Detailed descriptions, with figures, of the parts of the horn-bearing 

 tail-armour are given, and comparisons are subsequently pursued in 

 examples of recent and fossil Reptilia and Mammalia, provided with 

 similar caudal armature. 



Illustrations of these and of the parts of Megalania compared 

 accompany the paper. 



