574 



stated that he had recently received from Mr. John Collett, of the 

 Geological Survey of Indiana, a number of vertebrate remains 

 from some point in Illinois. The specimens were taken from a 

 blackish shale and consist of separate vertebrae, and other parts 

 of the skeleton, often in a fragmentary condition. Although the 

 absence of information as to the mutual relations of the pieces 

 . renders the identification difficult, yet the interest attaching to 

 them, in consequence of their peculiar forms and the locality of 

 their discovery, renders it important to determine their zoological 

 position. Mr. Collett informed Prof. Cope that all the specimens 

 were found near together and at the same horizon. 



A remarkable peculiarity of all the vertebras of the series is a 



in the livin- lizards of the genus Sphenodun of New Zealand. 

 The bones of the limbs and scapular arches are so decidedly rep- 

 tilian, and so unlike those of any Batrachia with which we are yet 

 acquainted, that they probably belong to the former class. They 

 constitute the first definite indication of the existence of reptiles 

 of the order Rhynclwcephalia, in the Western Hemisphere. They 

 belong to two species of two new genera which were named re- 

 spectively, Cricotus heteroclitus and Clepsy drops Collettii. 



Associated with these saurians were found teeth of two species 

 of fishes, which are important in the evidence of the position of 

 the beds in which they occur. One of these is a new species of 

 Ceratodus and the other a Diplodus. The former genus is charac- 

 teristic of the Triassic period in Europe, one species having been 

 found in the Oolite. It still lives in North Australia. In both 

 these respects the lizards mentioned present a remarkable coinci- 

 dence. They also belong to the horizon of the Trias in Europe, 

 and the only living species is found in New Zealand. Thus it 

 would seem that a fragment of this fauna, so ancient in the 

 Northern Hemisphere and so remarkably preserved in the South- 

 ern, has been brought to light in Illinois. It must be added, in 

 reference to the geologic age of the fossils, that the genus Dip- 

 lodus has not yet been discovered above the carboniferous, and 

 that one genus of the family of lizards described belongs to the 

 Permian in Germany. It cannot therefore be determined at 

 pre.-eiit whether the formation in which they occur is Triassic or 

 Permian. 



