BY C. W. DE VIS. 



99 



character is recognised in the presence of an open ectepicondylar 

 canal — the generic, as compared with Megalania, in the long and 

 contracted course of that canal — a specific in the position of the 

 medullary foramen, which is removed from the radial edge of the 

 coronoid fossa* to the ulnar side of its middle sub-ni \rginal point. 

 Its specific affinities are with V. varius in the prominence and 

 length of its supinator ridge, but with goi ildii, punctatus, <fcc, in the 

 distinct rotundity of its ulnar condyle and relatively increased 

 prominence of the radial which, however, has a form peculiar in 

 being contracted at its distal end, with a direction more nearly 

 parallel to the long axis of the shaft than in modern species ; the 

 facies of this region of the bone thus being rather Scincoid than 

 Varanoid. 



The bone is from an adult individual, and indicates a species 

 not greatly larger than an average V. varius ; the tibia represents 

 an individual nearly one-half as large again — the difference, though 

 considerable, is not of itself sufficient to warrant a distinction of 

 species. Structurally, the tibia is in all respects an accurate forecast 

 of the bone in recent species. The following specific characters are 

 noticeable : — the head less elongate transversely — the depth of the 

 epiphysis on the tibial side much greater — the intercondylar notch 

 wider and shallower. Like the humerus, it comprises features of 

 two or more living species — a concave facet on the edge of the 

 ectepicondylar tuberosity close to the procnernial tuberosity for the 

 reception of the head of the fibula, faintly seen in V. gouldii, but 

 not in varius, is quite distinct in the fossil which, on the other hand, 

 is more nearly approached in varius by the prominence of the ridges 

 for muscular insertion which on either side descend from the 

 condylar margins. 



* The writer takes this opportunity of pointing out an error which crept 

 into his description of the humerus of Megalania by which the coronoid 

 fossa was misnamed the olecranal. 



G 



