On associated bones of a small anomodont reptile, Keirognathus cordylus (Seeley) : showing the relative dimensions of the anterior parts of the skeleton, and structure of the fore-limb and shoulder girdle / by H.G. Seeley.

Harry Govier Seeley

Date:: 1888

Credit: On associated bones of a small anomodont reptile, Keirognathus cordylus (Seeley) : showing the relative dimensions of the anterior parts of the skeleton, and structure of the fore-limb and shoulder girdle / by H.G. Seeley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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$Reptilia.—V. On Associated Bones of a Small Anomodont Reptile, Keirognathus cordylus (Seeley), showing the Relative Dimensions of the Anterior Parts of the Skeleton, and Structure of the Fore-limb and Shoulder Girdle. By EL G. Seeley, F.R.S., Professor of Geography in King's College, London. Received April 5,—Read April 26, 1888-- [Plates 75, 76.] The Dicynodont remains hitherto described are nearly all isolated portions of different skeletons, which give no definite idea of the form of body or proportions of the limbs of the animals comprised in the group. The skulls described have been separated from the vertebrae ; there has been an absence of matrix to connect either with the limb bones or the shoulder girdle; and* though the pelvis has been found associated with the sacrum, there is no means of judging of its relative size as compared with the head or limbs. Although the Anomodontia are among the most interesting of Reptiles in osteological structure, knowledge of the individual animals is indefinite, and no restoration of the skeleton has been possible. There is one specimen (Plate 75), however, in the British Museum which contributes materially towards the desired knowledge. It is a small slab of grey-green calcareous shale, numbered 49,413,collected by Mr. Thomas Bain at Klipfontein, Fraserberg, and placed in the National Collection in May, 1878. It is in the worst possible preserva- tion, owing to fracture through the remains, and absence of the counterpart slab, but exhibits the skull, a few vertebrae, ribs, the shoulder girdle, and bones of the fore-limb of a small species of a genus closely allied to Dicynodon. The limbs prove to have been unexpectedly short, and, notwithstanding the Mammalian form of pelvis, in other specimens referred to the genus Dicynodon, justify the inference that the proportions of the body were rather those of a short-tailed Salamander or Seal than of a Dinosaur or long-limbed Mammal. Die Head. The skull is exposed in side view with the lower jaw in contact. The extreme antero-posterior length of the head is 10 centims., but this extent is due to the posterior lateral expansion of the squamosal bones at the back of the head, for the MDCCCLXXXVIII.—B. 8.12.88.$