In going through the remains of Chelonia preserved in the British Museum I came across two vertebræ from the Wealden of the Isle of Wight, which had been inadvertently included in that series. These specimens (B.M. No. R. 901) formed part of the collection of the late Rev. Mr. Fox, and clearly indicate a small Dinosaur allied to the genus Cœlurus.

An examination of the fine series of the remains of Anthracotheriidæ from the Hempstead beds of the Isle of Wight contained in the British Museum, and their comparison with specimens and casts of the remains of the allied Continental forms, has led to the following conclusions. Some of the specimens will be figured on a future occasion.

Having completed the description of the mammals and birds at present known from the Siwaliks of India and Burma (a list of the former being given in the September number of this Magazine, pp. 426–8), I have thought it well to publish a short account of the distribution in time and space of the Siwalik genera of these two classes, as a prelude to a more extended notice, which I hope to give in the “Palæontologia Indica” when I have completed the description of the whole vertebrate fauna of the Siwaliks.

A Recent examination of the remains of Tertiary Lacertilia and Ophidia preserved in the British Museum having brought to light some new facts in regard to distribution, and also indicating the necessity of revision of certain determinations of other authors, I have thought it advisable to communicate the result of my observations in a collective form.

I Presume that most English students of Mesozoic Reptiles are acquainted, at least by report, with the magnificent collection of the remains of Sauropterygians and other Saurians from the Oxford Clay of Northamptonshire in the possession of Mr. A. N. Leeds, of Eyebury, near Peterborough. Those, however, who have not had the good fortune to see this unrivalled collection, can have no idea of its richness, or of the light it throws on the organization and affinities of the Sauropterygians of the later Jurassic seas.

Introductory.—The writers having had occasion, in company with Mr. Davies, to examine the greater number of the remains of English fossil Emydine and Pleurodiran Chelonia in the collection of the British Museum, with a view both to their rearrangement in the cases and the determination of their affinities, and having in the course of such examination been enabled to add several genera to the British fauna, as well as to make certain emendations in regard to the age and affinity of some of the previously-described forms, have thought it advisable to put their observations on record.

In writing Part I. of the British Museum Catalogue of Fossil Reptilia, in which a large number of forms are known solely by disjecta membra, I was fully prepared to find that many of my determinations, which are frequently provisional, would subsequently need correction. It is, moreover, highly probable that there are really more species represented in the collection than I have indicated, as in some cases, in my desire to avoid the introduction of new specific or generic names which could not be fully substantiated, I have provisionally included under generic or specific headings specimens which may prove to indicate distinct forms.

A few years ago I described some remains of Antelopes from the Pliocene Siwaliks of India, when I employed the generic term Antilope in the wide sense in which it was used by the older zoologists and palæontologists. At a later date I was enabled to refer two of the species thus designated to two of the genera of Antelopes as at present classed; and at the same time mentioned some other forms. A recent examination of all the remains of this group from the same deposits contained in the British Museum has enabled me to make a more exact determination in the case of another of the species mentioned in my first notice, and also to indicate the existence of other forms closely allied to existing African Antelopes. These new forms I hope to have an opportunity of describing on a future occasion, and, therefore, now content myself with merely giving a list of the species which I can at present recognize. The ill-defined character of some of the genera of existing Antelopes renders it in many instances a matter of extreme difficulty to be quite sure as to the affinities of their fossil relations.

IN his memoir on the Vertebrates of the Quercy Phosphorites, Dr. Filhol has described two species which he refers to the genus Cœnotherium, viz. C. commune and C. elongatum. Of the former only one ramus of the mandible is figured, and it is referred to a varietal form under the name of procommune: the latter, which is a small form, is known by the cranium and mandible. Both species have no diastema in the dental series. In addition to these, two small species are referred to the genus Plesiomeryx, under the names of P. cadurcensis and P. quinquedentatus, the latter being known only by the mandible; these forms are distinguished from the true Cænotherium by the presence of a diastema between the earlier premolars.

Some ten years ago Mr. Alfred Gillett observed in a quarry of the Lower Lias near his residence at Overleigh, Street, Somerset, a number of broken slabs of shaly limestone, containing portions of the skeleton of an Ichthyosaur. These slabs, which had been cast aside by the workmen, were fitted together by Mr. Gillett, who finally succeeded, after the expenditure of great pains, in skilfully developing from them an almost entire example of the skeleton of Ichthyosaurus tenuirostris, Conybeare.

In the year 1841 Sir R. Owen described and figured a slab of rock from the Lower Lias of Barrow-on-Soar which showed the impressions of the bones and integuments of a pelvic paddle of an Ichthyosaurus, probably referable to the typical I. communis. In this specimen it appears that the integuments were produced to a greater extent on the posterior than on the anterior side of the bony framework; and that while the anterior margin of the soft parts showed evidence of squamation, the larger posterior flap was marked by oblique striæ extending from the bones to the periphery which appeared to have been caused by parallel bundles of muscular fibres. The distal extremity of the soft fin terminated in a sharp point far below the distal bones.

In my paper on Crocodilia in the July Number of the Geological Magazine, pp. 310–311, I expressed my opinion that the characters given by M. Dollo in his description of the Belgian Bernissartia did not appear to me to afford grounds by which that form could be distinguished from Hylæochampsa, and I accordingly observed in a note that the onus of proving the distinctness of the former rested with its describer. In a note published on pp. 394–396 of the September Number of the Magazine, M. Dollo replies to this criticism, and shows conclusively that the Belgian form is entitled to specific, and very probably to generic distinction from the larger English one.

In plates lxii. lxvii. lxviii. of part 7 of the “Fauna Antiqua Sivalensis” (1847) a large number of remains of Merycopotamus (nearly all of which are in the collection of the British Museum) are figured under the name of M. dissimilis, although some of them are distinguished as var. major and others as var. minor; and it thus appears that at that date the authors of the work quoted referred all the remains to one species. It is stated, however, in Falconer's “Palæontological Memoirs,” vol. ii. p. 407, note 4, that in 1846 Falconer considered that there were two species, which he proposed to call M. dissimilis and M. nanus; and some of the smaller specimens figured in the “F. A. S.” under the former name, bear upon them the latter name in Falconer's handwriting. In some manuscript notes of Falconer's, written at a much later date, the name M. nanus is once again employed (although the tooth to which it was applied does not belong to Merycopotamus at all); and it would therefore seem that Falconer had by that time reverted to his original view.

Having occasion in a work now in the press to refer to certain fossil Reptiles and Amphibians of which the commonly accepted nomenclature requires revision, I think it advisable to make the necessary amendments in a Journal specially devoted to Geology and Palæontology. I also take the opportunity of giving two new scientific names to Reptiles from the Wealden.

In an early number of the present serial Prof. Sir R. Owen described and figured the hinder part of the palate of a small mammal from the London Clay of Herne Bay, under the new name of Miolophus planiceps. The specimen is now preserved in the Museum at York, and had been previously described by Mr. E. Charlesworth under the name of Platychœrops Richardsoni; a circumstance which seems to have escaped the notice of Sir R. Owen. This name having the priority should supersede that of Miolophus. The specimen (of which there is a cast in the British Museum) shows the second and third true molars of both sides, and on the right side the fourth premolar and the alveoli of pm 3 and m. 1. Both the later premolars and true molars are of the same general form, and have tritubercular crowns. Sir R. Owen regarded the specimen as indicating a form allied to Hyracotherium (including Pliolophus); but the similarity between the premolars and true molars and the trituberculate crowns of the latter forbids the acceptance of this view