50 GUIDE TO THE FOSSIL REPTILES, AMPHIBIANS, FISHES. 
Wall-case 
19. 
Table-case 
U. 
Wall -case 
19. 
Table-case 
U. 
The skull is typically Stegocephalian, with two bony occipital 
condyles, and with the teeth comparatively simple in structure. 
The vertebrae are constricted cylinders, and the ribs are some¬ 
times as long and slender as in a lizard. 
Eemains of Microsauria were first discovered inside 
decayed tree-stumps in the Coal Measures of South Joggins, 
Nova Scotia, where the little animals had evidently been 
trapped by accident. Numerous skeletons have since been 
found in Coal Measures of other localities both in North 
America and Europe and in the Lower Permian Coal 
Measures of Bohemia. Some of the original bones of 
Hylonomus discovered by Sir William Dawson in the decayed 
trees in N ova Scotia are exhibited in Table-case U. Speci¬ 
mens of Cerater'petum are also shown from the Coal Measures 
of Kilkenny and Staffordshire; and there are electrotypes of 
this and several other kinds from the Lower Permian of 
Bohemia. Most of the Bohemian specimens are pyritised, so 
that they cannot be permanently preserved. Dr. Anton Fritsch 
has devised the ingenious plan of making electrotypes from 
the moulds in the shale from which the decayed bones have 
been removed, and the exact copies of these fossils now 
exhibited are the result of his work. 
Sub-order 3. —Aistopoda. 
These closely resemble the Microsauria, with which they 
are found, but they are shaped like snakes and destitute of 
limbs. Remains of Dolichosoma and Ojphidevpetum are 
exhibited. 
Sub-order 4. —Branehiosauria. 
The Branehiosauria (“gilled lizards ”) are so named because 
traces of the gill-supports are always conspicuous in young 
individuals. They are small animals like salamanders, with 
barrel-shaped vertebrae and short ribs. They are known only 
from the Lower Permian of France, Saxony, Bohemia, and 
Moravia. Numerous specimens of Branchiosaurus are 
exhibited from Saxony; and there is one individual from 
Bohemia showing an impression of the long soft tail on the 
black shale in which the skeleton is imbedded. The small 
Protriton from France and the relatively large Melanerpetum 
from Moravia are also represented by typical examples. 
