1885.] 



On the Reptiliferous Sandstone of Elgin. 



395 



in the quarries about Cummingsfcown and Hopeman, and casts of the 

 dermal armour of Stagonolepis were obtained from Findrassie, a little 

 to the south-west of Spynie. 



In 1858, Professor Huxley made the important announcement that 

 Stagonolejpis was not a fish, as supposed by Agassiz, but a Crocodilian ; 

 at the same time stating that he had recognized the remains of a third 

 species of reptile among fossils sent to him by Dr. Gordon from 

 Lossiemouth ; this new reptile subsequently received the name of 

 Hyperodapedon Gordoni* 



In 1867 the same author was able to demonstrate from fresh and 

 better preserved specimens which had been discovered at Lossie- 

 mouth, that Telerpeton was not only a true Lizard, but one of a very 

 . specialised type ;f and two years later he gave a full description of the 

 structure and zoological position of Hyperodapedon, showing it to have 

 been a Lacertilian having affinities with the recent Sphenodon and the 

 Triassic Bhynchosaurus ; he was also able to announce the discovery 

 of remains of the same genus in the Keuper of Warwickshire and 

 Devonshire, and in the Maledi (Trias) beds of India. % 



The year 1877 was marked by the publication of Professor Huxley's 

 Monograph on Stagonolepis, in which he referred to an interesting 

 cast of a jaw from the Findrassie quarry, to which he gave the name 

 of Dasygnathus longidens. This rather obscure fossil, it was shown, 

 might possibly be referable to the fishes or Labyrinthodonts, though 

 it presents some points of resemblance with the Dinosaurs. § 



In the year 1884 I saw in the Elgin Museum the cast of a skeleton 

 which had recently been obtained from a quarry newly opened near 

 Elgin, and to be more particularly referred to in the sequel. This 

 fossil appeared to me to be so different from all the remains hitherto 

 found in the formation, that I obtained an impression of it and sub- 

 mitted it to Professor Huxley, who recognised in it certain characters 

 distinctive of the Dinosauria. From the same quarry a skeleton 

 apparently belonging to another lizard, distinct alike from Telerpeton 

 and Hyperodapedon, with portions of the skeleton of the last-men- 

 tioned genus, were also obtained. 



Returning to Elgin in the autumn of the present year, I was told 

 by my friend Dr. Gordon that another reptilian specimen, including 

 the skull and some other parts of the skeleton, had been found in the 

 same quarry. On examining this specimen I at once saw that it 

 exhibited the characteristic features of Dicynodon, and my opinion on 

 the subject was confirmed by my friend Dr. Traquair, F.R.S., of 



* " Quart. Journ. G-eol. Soc," vol. xv (1859), p. 440. 

 t Ibid., vol. xxiii (1867), p. 77. 

 + Ibid., vol. xxv (1869), p. 138. 



§ " Memoirs of the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom," Monograph III 

 (1877). 



2 D 2 



