24 
MEMOIRS OF TEE QUEEN SLANT) MUSEUM, 
ON A GIANT TURTLE FROM 
THE QUEENSLAND LOWER CRETACEOUS. 
By Heber a. Longman. 
(Plates XII and XIII and Two Text-figures.) 
It has been a matter of surprise to those interested in palaeontology that 
the Queensland Cretaceous formations have as yet yielded comparatively few 
remains of the giant reptilian forms which characterised Mesozoic faunas. The 
paucity of described species is pi'obably due to lack of systematic research, and, 
as time goes on and our inland areas are better known, further fossil remains, 
perchance providing novelties rivalling the grotescpie monsters of other lands, 
may be exhumed. A collection of fossils found on Sylvania Station, twenty miles 
west of Hughenden, gives encouragement to this hope, for these, although 
fragmentary, point indubitably to the presence of a giant Chelonian whose 
proportions are not dwarfed by the monster turtles of the London Clay or the 
American Archelon and Protosiega, 
The Queensland j\Iuseum is indebted to Mr. F. L. Berney, whose efforts in 
the cause of Australian science have already made his name familiar with local 
workers, for the deposition of these valuable remains in our national collections. 
Just as in America the first described fragments of the giant Archelon and 
other Protostcgidce were supplemented by fairly complete skeletons, so we hope 
that our Queensland formations will later afford examples which will permit of 
comprehensive reconstruction and probably shed light on the phylogeny of the 
gioup. Although the outlines of the Australian Cretaceous sea are not as vet 
comprehensively defined, there is considerable evidence for an eastern land 
barrier connecting Australia Avith Asiatic regions and also stretching further 
south. If this harrier Avere continuous with northern continental regions, 
associations \Aith our Cretaceous fauna should be more frequent on the AA^estern 
side (where breaks in the land barrier ai*e suggested) than on the Pacific border. 
M . S. Dun ^ has shown that the marine fauna of Western Austx'alia exhibits 
marked affinities (and identity) with Eurojtean and Asiatic species,” but he 
notes a '' lack of community” ))etAveen the Mesozoic fauna of the Avest and that 
of the vast eastern Ixeds (from Avhence our fossils come). He speaks of these last 
as a Cz’etaceous iMediteri’anean, ” and refers to the numerous species peculiar 
to the region and inany endemic genera among the Mollusca.” But this endemic 
character of our Cretaceous molluscan fauna can scarcely be projected into the 
accompanying larger vertebrates such as the immense Ichtliyosaurians and 
Plesiosaurians. Similarly aa^c dare not suggest merely a local range for this new 
giant Chelonian, especially AAhen we remember hoAv cosmopolitan is the habitat 
of sev eral far smaller turtles at the present day. Thus it is by no means 
MV. S. Dun, Handbook of Australia, B.A.A.S., 1914, p. 296. ~~~ 
