18 
subjected. It will be seen that the most important facts are 
readily accessible. We have to regret the loss of the orbits, 
the limbs, and the tail. 
Any discussion of the probable affinities of this specimen 
with other recent or fossil forms of life is so closely con- 
nected with those details which have been brought to light 
by previous discoveries of a similar kind, that it will be 
as well to recapitulate briefly what is already known of 
carboniferous amphibia. The first remains of this kind were 
found in the clay slate of the upper Bavarian coal-measures, 
in the Saarsbruck coalfield, and in the Brandschiefer of 
Miinster-appel, in Rhenish Bavaria.* The genus Arehe- 
gosaurus was established by Goldfuss upon characters derived 
from these specimens. The chief points in which that genus 
differs from our specimen are these : — Archegosaurus has a 
notochordal or imperfectly ossified vertebral column, and the 
occipital condyles are also cartilaginous. There is much 
resemblance between the two in other points — such as the 
general characters of the skull, the three pectoral plates, the 
natatory limbs, and the labyrinthoid teeth. Goldfuss was 
inclined to refer Archegosaurus to the reptiles proper. This 
view was opposed by Professor Owen, who pointed out its 
affinities with the perennibranchiate batrachia, and placed it 
in his order Ganocephala. The interesting discussion in 
Owen’s Palaeontology should be consulted by those who wish 
to know the grounds of this decision. More recently a 
numerous series of amphibia has been disinterred from the 
Airdrie black-band ironstone, from the Gilmerton limestone, 
and from the Kilkenny coalfield. These have been all 
figured and described by Professor Huxley, whose memoirs 
in the Geological Journal (1862, 1863) and in the Transac- 
tions of the Royal Irish Academy (vol. xxiv.) now constitute 
* Goldfuss, Neues Jahrbucli fur Mineralogie, 1847. Hermann von Meyer, 
Palpeontographica, 1849. Bd. 1. Burmeister, Zeitschrift fur Zoologie, 1848. Bd. 1. 
