SIR R. OWEX OX A TRIASSIC SAURIAN. 



3 



end o£ Africa with the exceptional incisory and molary characters 

 of some of the low Australian forms of Mammals still in existence 

 at the Antipodes. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE I. 



Skull of Galesaurus jplanicejps, Ow, 



Fig. 1. Side view. 



2. Top view. 



3. Base view. 



4. Magnified view, outer side, of molar tooth. 

 (All the figures, save 4, are of the natural size.) 



Bisctjssiox. 



The Presidext referred to the skilful work of the masons in the 

 British Museum, under the able direction of Mr. William Davies, 

 and was glad to find that the Author's previous suggestions as to 

 structure were fully confirmed. 



Mr. Cruttwell questioned the Triassic age of the South-African 

 beds in question. They were in conformable sequence to beds full 

 of undoubted Carboniferous fossils. Might not Galesaurus rank as 

 a Carboniferous Amphibian? 



Prof. Seeley remarked on the admirable description of this 

 species which the Author had given, and regretted that he was un- 

 able to concur in the conclusions as to its classification. He con- 

 tended that the term Theriodontia used for this animal and its allies 

 was based on resemblances of analogy which did not imply affinity, 

 and that other reptile types had as good a claim to be termed 

 Theriodont from resemblances to other mammalian forms of den- 

 tition, and it would be absurd to institute ordinal groups for them. 

 He maintained that the developed tooth in the position of a canine, 

 in these fossils, was not a character on which an order could be 

 based. Spencer's investigation of the organ resembling an eye 

 which occupies the parietal foramen gave new interest to its pre- 

 sence in the fossil, but the character was not Therioid. In the con- 

 struction of the palate he found no difference of plan from the 

 other Anomodontia. There were differences from Lizards in the 

 mode of union of the pterygoid bones with the sphenoidal mass ; 

 but the fossil showed no distinctive type in this region. He urged 

 that the mammalian resemblance noted in the form of the brain- 

 case was equally delusive ; for although Procoloplion was far from 

 being the nearest ally of Galesaurus, he thought the resemblance 

 between them in the fore part of the skull, in the divided nares 

 and forms of the bones, justified him in saying that there was no 

 more difference between those genera than differentiated, in another 

 order, the Chelonian genus Chitra from the Sea-Turtle, Chelone. 

 He therefore considered it unfortunate that an ordinal group, 

 Theriodontia, should have been instituted for these Anomodonts. 



Prof. T. Rupert Joxes said that the Stormberg beds, in which 

 the Galesaurus is found, lie somewhere between Palaeozoic and 



