No. 556] NOTES AND LITERATURE 249 



described in another paper 12 and illustrated in five plates. The 

 material is in the University of Chicago. The form is one of the 

 later, peculiar, armored, bizarre, stegosaurian dinosaurs allied to 

 Polacanthus of England, Stereocephalus of Canada, Hierosaurus 

 of Kansas Niobrara Cretaceous, AnkyJosaurus of Montana and 

 other widely distributed genera of armored dinosaurs. The dino- 

 saur was found in a marine deposit associated with plesiosaur re- 

 mains. A short sketch of the horizon, the Ilailey shales of the 

 "Wyoming Cretaceous, is given. 



The soft parts of Cretaceous fishes are described and figured in 

 the other paper, 13 and a new herring from the Cretaceous near 

 Waco, Texas, is described as Thrissopater intestinalis, so called 

 on account of the preservation of the intestines. The form is 

 allied to T. magnus of the English Cretaceous. Another form of 

 fish, identified provisionally as Empo nepaholica Cope, is repre- 

 sented by the cast of the stomach, a portion of the intestine and 

 a pectoral fin with a few scales. 



Dr. S. W. Williston has reviewed the question of the homology 

 of the wing finger of Pterodactyls 14 and has given a new restora- 

 tion of a pterodactyl as it probably appeared in life. The 

 restoration is based on Dr. Williston 's previous restoration of the 

 skeleton of Nyctosaurus gracilis Marsh published in Eastman's 

 translation of Zittel's "Paleontology" (II, 255). 



The question which has interested anatomists for nearly a cen- 

 tury is whether the wing finger of the pterodactyls is the fourth 

 or fifth. There have been many arguments for each determina- 

 tion. Cuvier was the first who correctly interpreted the homol- 

 ogy of the wing finger, basing his determination on the phalan- 

 geal formula of other reptiles. Plieninger has recently raised the 

 question as to whether the interpretation of the phalangeal form- 

 ula, 2, 3, 4, 5, 3 for the hand and 2, 3, 4, 5, 4 for the foot, is the 

 primitive one for the Reptilia. Dr. Williston answers this ques- 

 tion conclusively in the affirmative and quotes as evidence newly 

 acquired facts from the Permian vertebrates of Texas and New 

 Mexico. To substantiate his claim he figures the entire arm of 

 three genera of Permian reptiles, Limnoscelis, Ophiacodon and 

 Varanosaurus. In all of these genera, known from nearly per- 

 fect material, the phalangeal formula is as given above. 



The author gives further notes on the function of the pteroid 



"Vol. v, n 0> 14 



"Vol. V, No. 15. 



14 Journ. Geo!., XIX, 696-705, 4 figs. 



