OF A MEGALANIAN GENUS FROM LORD HOWE’S ISLAND. 
4 75 
the positions in which they had become imbedded. The partially detached right horn- 
core, fig. 2, is figured below, in the position to show its curvature. 
Three eminences of the outer table of the cranium, Plate 30, a , b, c, answer to the 
three protruding from each side of the corresponding parts of the skull in Megalania, 
prisca* The homologues of the shorter horn-cores are represented in Meiolania by 
low obtuse eminences, a, c. The main horn-core, b, rises from a broadly elliptical base 
to a height of 4 inches, following the convex curvature, which is backward and slightly 
outward ; its basal circumference is 6|- inches. The right side of the cranial wall had 
suffered a greater degree of fracture, and the main horn-core had become detached ; 
its relative position in the mass of matrix is nearly parallel transversely with the left 
undisturbed horn-core. The side of the cranial wall, from which the right horn is 
detached, shows the hinder rudimental core, c; it differs from the anterior one, a , in 
its lower development, and narrower, more elongate, basal proportions. 
The tract of the upper wall of the skull, continued forward from the main horn- 
core and anterior protuberance, a, includes the upper border of the left orbit, o, and 
that preserved portion of the frontal region extends to the right orbit o. The skull- 
wall is continued forward to the outer nostril, ol, of which the right border is pre¬ 
served, with a portion of that side of the upper jaw, 21, 22. 
On the under-side of this maxillo-premaxillary part of the skull, Plate 29, fig. 4, is 
shown the absence of tooth-sockets, and their replacement, in the present species of 
Meiolania, by three curved, nearly parallel, trenchant ridges, with the two intervening 
channels. The osseous parts, which had been ensheathed by the perishable corneous 
beak, differ from that of Megalania prisca (Plate 38, fig. 3, ‘Phil. Trans.,’ 1880) 
inasmuch as the intermediate ridge subsides sooner at its fore end, leaving the 
mesial portion of this surface of the bony mouth as a broader and shallower depression 
undivided by the forward continuation of the second ridge. In Meiolania minor a 
third trenchant ridge is not developed. 
The outer surface of the skull-wall of Meiolania platyceps, Plate 30, is sub-reticu¬ 
late, the boundaries of the depressions being barely prominent. The only traceable 
suture on the exposed tract of skull is a medial one between the parial frontals and 
nasals. The basal mutilation of this part of the skeleton of Meiolania (Plate 31, 
fig. 1) is such as to preclude reliable description. The right main horn-core (Plate 30, 
fig. 2) is so displaced, by probably disturbing movements of the matrix, as to show 
the degree of backward curvature. 
The characters above described indicate a larger species than Meiolania minor, but 
add grounds for the generic distinction from the still larger Australian horned Saurian. 
The fracture at the upper surface of the skull, marked x in Plate 30, may relate to a 
seventh horn-core; if so, it has a hinder position in relation to the orbit than in the 
subject of fig. 1, Plate 38, of the ‘Phil. Trans.’ for 1880. 
* Plate 37, fig'. 1, b, e,f, ‘Phil. Trans.,’ 1880. 
3 P 2 
