Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Further observations on Pareiasaurus / 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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![Portio]is of the blade of the scapula were found, but they add nothing to the distinctive characters of the type. The articular parts of the left ilium and ischium were found, and a right pubis, which may belong to another animal. The ulna shows the distinctive character of the species in a slender lower end of the shaft, which is imperfect distally. The distal end of the humerus is also imperfect. The tibia has a deep furrow in front, but is similar in character to the large specimen already figured, ‘Phil. Trans.,’ B., 1889,* Plate 25, which may belong to Tapinocephalus. I do not describe these fragmentary remains because the corresponding bones, seen in the skeleton of P. Baini, are more perfect. Skull of Pareiasaurus Baini (Plates 17, 18, 19). The skull is a little distorted as the result of earth movement in folding the rocks, by which it has become slightly oblique and slightly lengthened. When a median line is drawn along the palate, the quadrate articulation on the left side is an inch or two further back than that on the right side. The lateral measurement from the median line of the premaxillary suture to the hinder border of the supra-quadrate bone in the middle of the cheek is 18|- inches on the right side, but 20| inches on the left side. There is thus an elongation of the left side of the head, and a gap exists in the jaw on that side about 4 inches loug, which may be partly due to this cause. The extreme length of the skull in the median line, from the alveolar border to the occipital border, measured on the palate, is 15f inches ; but owing to the convexity of the ascending median internasal bar of the premaxillary bones, the head extends about an inch further forward. The extreme width of the skull posteriorly, over the quadrato-jugal region, as preserved, is 20^ inches. Hence its length is to its breadth nearly as four to five. In P. bombidens the length of the skull is about 15 inches, and its breadth about 17. Therefore, since the skull of this new specimen is proved to be elongated by post mortem tension, by about 2 inches at least, it was of a broader and relatively shorter type than that referred to P. bombidens. The alveolar margin of the jaw descends below the level of the palate to a depth of nearly 2 inches in front, and its depth decreases posteriorly to about 1 inch, at the posterior termination of the maxillary dentition. This vertical internal alveolar surface of the premaxillary and maxillary bones is slightly concave in depth, and in length its concavity follows in a general way the concavity of the alveolar outline. The number of teeth in the alveolar border on the right side does not exceed sixteen, of which not more than two appear to be contained in the premaxillary bone. All these are inclined inward as in other specimens, suggesting a relation to * [An examination of these remains enables me to identify the bone figured, ‘ Phil. Trans.,’ 1889, B, Plate 23, as a tibia of Pareiasaurus. Its resemblance to the ulna is remarkable, in view of the resemblance of the femur to a humerus ; but the bone had not the epiphyses, which were supposed to have been lost; and the distal end (Plate 23, fig. 3) fitted on to the astragalus.—1892.]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22417278_0016.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)