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XIY. Description of Fossil Remains of Two Species of a Megalanian Genus (Meiolania) 
from “ Lord Howes Island 
By Sir Richard Owen, K.C.B., F.R.S., dc. 
Received March 15,—Read April 1, 1886. 
[Plates 29-32.] 
In 1884 I was favoured by Dr. Woodward, F.R.S., F.G.S., with the inspection of a 
series of fossil remains from “ Lord Howe’s Island,” which had been transmitted by 
the Government of New South Wales (Department of Mines) to the Department of 
Geology in the British Museum of Natural H istory. 
These fossils indicated a Saurian Reptile allied to the genus, characters of which are 
described and figured in the £ Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society ’ for the 
years 1858, 1880, and 1881. 
'Hie geographical conditions of the island, its extent not exceeding six miles in 
length by one mile in average width, and its distance from the nearest continental 
tract of land—about 450 miles due east of Port Macquarie, Australia—lent unusual 
interest to acquisitions of knowledge of the kinds of vertebrate air-breathing animals 
which had there left evidence of their nature and affinities. 
The most singular of the Saurians of Australia, now extinct, was the many-horned 
toothless kind, which has received the name of Megalania, an addition to the osteology 
of which, throwing light upon its medium and mode of locomotion, was the subject of 
a late communication to the Society.* 
A reptile of this genus, or nearly allied thereto, but of a species inferior in size, I 
conclude, after comparison of the fossil remains, to claim a generic or sub-generic 
distinction, and propose to designate it Meiolania. 
These fossils arrived imbedded in a coral-sand rock,t and are indicative of two 
species slightly differing in size and in characters not explicable on difference of 
individual age. They have been carefully worked out of their matrix by Mr. Barlow, 
of the British Museum, with his usual skill and care, to which the ££ Department of 
Geology ” owes the display of instructive characters of many of its rare fossil 
specimens. 
* “Description of Fossil Remains, including Foot-bones, of Megalania prisca.” Read January 28, 1886. 
t See Appendix to the present Paper. 
