552 
PROFESSOR OWEN ON SOME REMAINS OF THE 
In the Wealclen Goniopholis the quadrangular dorsal scutes are united, tile-wise, 
by peg-and-socket joints ; the equally thick ventral scutes join each other by thick 
sutural borders, and an annular arrangement of the armour needs but little to be 
complete. 
This, in fact, is effected in a more closely mailed Saurian described under the name 
of JEtosaurus ferratus. t Nearly a score of these extinct Reptiles, in all their panoply, 
were discovered and exposed on one slab of “ Middle Keuper sandstone,” at Haslach, 
in Wirtemberg. The arrangement of the scutes is annular. The long axis of the 
dorsal ones is transverse and a single pair spans the back and corresponding surface 
of the tail: the ventral scutes are quadrangular, in four transverse pairs : there is 
a single large lateral scute on each side. Thus twelve scutes compose each dermal 
segment or circle. But in none is the outer surface produced into a ridge or spine. 
In Hylceosaurus the petrified osseous supports indicate the back to have been 
defended by long, compressed sharp-pointed triangular spines, probably in pans, 
resembling in shape and relative size the caudal ones of Uromastix princeps ; but 
evidence of the dermal caudal armature of the above Dinosaur is wanting. 
To this part of Megalania the nearest approach in its cold-blooded class seems to be 
made by a Liassic Dinosaur ( Scelidosaurus Harrisonii). 
The surface of this Saurian was defended by longitudinal series of massive dermal 
bones, those occupying the median and upper surfaces being arranged in pans upon 
the trunk and base of the tail. External to these were lateral series, at least two in 
number on the trunk, having a similar shape and ridged exterior ; but in some of the 
mid-dorsal series, the bony support of the horny tegument was developed into a stout 
conical shape, like those on the caudal girdles of Megalania. Each endoskeletal 
segment of the tail of the Scelidosaur was associated with an annular series of detached 
dermal ossicles of considerable size and thickness. Where best preserved, beyond the 
base of the tail, they are four in number (Plate 66, fig. 7). The largest (a) protects 
the upper surface of the segment, the next in size (c) the under surface, and a pah* of 
smaller scutes (b) are applied one on each side of the same segment. These plates are 
termed “ dermo-neural,” “ dermo-lisemal,” and “ dermo-lateral ” respectively, in the 
undercited monograph. J 
The dermo-neural plate of the segment figured in Plate 66 is of an oblong shape, 
with an excavated base, the sides of which converge to an apical elevated ridge, with 
a longitudinally convex contour. A portion of the left side of the base has been 
removed to expose the hollow, in which a small depression receives the summit of the 
neural spine : the fore part of the basal cavity rests upon the upper surface of a 
produced anterior zygapophysis of the inclosed caudal vertebra. 
* “ Report on British Fossil Reptiles,” vol. of the British Association, &c., for 1841, p. 70. 
t Oscar Fraas, ‘Monograph on 2Etosaurus,' 4to., 1877. 
t Volume, 4to., issued by the Paheontographical Society, for 1862, p. 22 of the “ Monograph on Liassic 
Reptilia.” 
