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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![sacrum. No rib is preserved, yet there is some appearance of a tubercle below the prezygapophysis of that vertebra. The sacral ribs are rather shorter than the last of the dorsal ribs, but they are much more massive. The first appears to be the largest, directed outward and backward ; the second directed outward, is smaller; the third is given off from a much smaller vertebra ; it is flattened, and expands as it extends outward. The fourth sacral rib is slender, and is like a caudal rib, except that on the right and left sides it is directed forward so that its extremity is in contact with the extremity of the sacral rib of the third pair. On both sides the ilium is broken and displaced. It lies in a horizontal position on the right side, and appears to be deeper than long, and more produced backward than forward, though this may be the effect of displacement subsequent to fracture. In form it is more like Phocosaurus than Pareiasaurus. Eight long caudal ribs, cylindrical and curved backward, can be counted on the right side attached to vertebrae, and behind these there appear to have been about nine vertebrae. I am unable to say whether caudal ribs were prolonged to the end of the tail, though two are seen at about the thirteenth and fourteenth. The caudal neural spines are at first inclined forward; towards the end of the series they appear to have been very small, and are not preserved. The only limb bone seen is the nearly perfect femur, which lies on the left side adjacent to what appears to be a fragment of the ilium, and is directed posteriorly. Its proximal end is convex from side to side, on the superior surface, with a large rounded head to the bone. The internal trochanter (which is external as the specimen lies) is enormously large, and greatly widens the bone proximally below the articular head. The indication of the length of the femur preserved is 1inch, the width of the proximal end is half an inch ; but the width of the elevated ball of the condyle does not exceed -j-q of an inch. The shaft is hollow, and at the distal fracture of the inch from the proximal end, is of an inch wide. In details of form this bone is as unlike Pareiasaicrus as are the bones of the fore-limb figured ‘ Phil. Trans.,’ 1889, B, Plate 9, fig. 9. But in plan, the femur, like the vertebrae, approaches nearer to Pareiasaurus than to any other type with which comparison has been attempted. The length of the vertebral column measured round the curve is about 9 inches, of which the tail does not exceed 3^ inches. The length of the sacrum is about an inch. The longest ribs in the anterior part of the body do not exceed 1^ inch. The last dorsal rib and earliest caudal are about of an inch long. The curvature of the dorsal ribs is small, as though they had enclosed a wide abdominal cavity. I am indebted to the Trustees of the Albany Museum for the opportunity of developing this skeleton from the matrix, and studying its characters in this country. July, 1892.]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22417278_0059.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
