ANOMALOUS REPTILES 
1 19 
abounded in the seas of the Permian period. These, as Owen 
points out, may have been its prey. 
The beak-headed lizards, or Pthynchocephalia,^ belong to another 
very remarkable order of reptiles 
that lived during the New Red 
Sandstone period. The order is 
now almost extinct, being only 
represented by the Tuatara, or 
Sphenodon, of New Zealand. 
There are three extinct 
reptiles to be considered under 
this head before we conclude 
our survey of Triassic reptiles, 
and first we will take the little 
Telerpeton. It was found in 
the New Red Sandstone strata 
of Elgin — then considered to 
be the Old Red Sandstone, and 
a great controversy took place 
with regard to their geological 
age. But now most geologists 
accept the view that they are 
of New Red Sandstone age, as 
asserted by Professor Huxley, 
Fig. 35. — Skeleton of Telerpeton elgi- 
and others. ihe discovery of from the Elgin Sandstone. Natural 
Telerpeton was an important Uf^er Manteil.) 
event in the scientific world at the time, chiefly because the Elgin 
sandstones were then considered to be of Old Red Sandstone age. 
The name now generally accepted denotes the remote antiquity 
of this reptile.^ 
^ GTeek—runchos, beak ; cephalos, head. ^ Greek — tele, far off ; erpeton, reptile. 
