46 GUIDE TO THE FOSSIL REPTILES, AMPHIBIANS, FISHES. 
Wall-case among the salamanders there is a large specimen of Crypto- 
T able* case ^ ranc ^ us scheuchzeri (Fig. 42) from the Upper Miocene of 
Xj’ Oeningen, Baden, in Wall-case 19. This gigantic salamander 
is closely related to a species still surviving in Japan. 
Fig. 42.—Skeleton of a gigantic Salamander (Cryptobranchus scheuchzeri) 
from the Upper Miocene of Oeningen, Baden; one-tenth nat. size. 
“Homo dilnvii testis” of Scheuchzer. (Wall-case 19.) 
Another specimen of the same animal, now in the Teyler 
Museum, Haarlem, was mistaken for a human skeleton by 
Scheuchzer, who described it in 1726 as Homo diluvii testis — 
“ man a witness of the deluge.” 
Wall-case 
19. 
Table-cases 
U, V. 
Order III.— STEGOCEPHALIA. 
As already mentioned, the most important Amphibians are 
those which flourished in the Carboniferous and Permian 
periods, and disappeared at the end of the Trias. They 
must have resembled crocodiles and salamanders in outward 
appearance, and they are known as Stegocephalia (“ roofed- 
heads ”), because the space for their biting muscles is always 
roofed by plates of bone, arranged much like those of 
the contemporary paddle-finned fishes. The skull is nearly 
always pitted or sculptured like that of a crocodile, and is 
marked with symmetrically-arranged grooves for slime-canals. 
There is always a pineal foramen. The palate resembles that 
of the modern Amphibia, and, as in the latter, the skull is 
fixed to the backbone by a pair of occipital condyles. The 
clavicles and interclavicle are expanded into large breast¬ 
plates, which are usually sculptured ; and behind these there 
is nearly always an armour of small bony scales arranged 
in a chevron pattern. 
Remains of Stegocephalia are found in nearly all parts of 
the world, including Australia. 
