326 NEWLY DISCOVERED FOSSIL REPTILE 
situation which the processes in the fossil occupy, 
is precisely that which the remains of such a dermal 
appendage may be supposed to have occupied, had 
the animal been pressed down on its back, and 
the scaly integument turned to the left side. It 
may also be remarked, that if, on the other hand, it 
be assumed that the bones, the nature of wliich is 
so perplexing, belonged to the tail, it is very ex- 
traordinary that they should have been forced into 
their present situation, associated with the bones of 
the anterior part of the skeleton, and maintaining a 
certain degree of parallelism with the line of cer- 
vical and dorsal vertebrm ; and as the bones which I 
have next to describe render it certain that the ori- 
ginal animal was covered in some parts of its body 
with enormous scales, or horny ajipendages, the 
supposition that these enigmatical processes are the 
remains of dermal spines, seems to be the more 
probable. It may, too, be added, that the base of 
one of these apophyses that was detached, has been 
carefully cleared from the stone, and that the ex- 
tremity has a synall sulcus only, thus bearing no 
resemblance whatever to that of a chevron bone ; 
in that sulcus a small dermal hone was found. 
Dermal hones . — Among the mass of vegetable 
matter removed in clearing the skeleton, many 
small bones were cut through and destroyed, until 
their peculiar structure attracted attention, and 
induced me to preserve the next which came under 
X 
my observation. Two only remain attached to the 
specimen ; one which is broken is in juxtaposition 
with the first right rib, k, PI. V. : the other is near the 
vegetable impression in the centre of the stone: this 
