On a New Reptile from Welte Vreden (Beaufort West), Eunotosaurus africanus (Seeley)
1892; Geological Society of London; Volume: 48; Issue: 1-4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1144/gsl.jgs.1892.048.01-04.43
ISSN2058-105X
Autores Tópico(s)Evolution and Paleontology Studies
ResumoWhen I visited Welte Vreden, near Beaufort West, Cape Colony, in August 1889, Mr. L. Pienaar gave me a small ovate concretion which contained the dorsal region of a new reptile. As preserved it is 7·5 centimetres long and 5·75 centimetres wide. It shows on the ventral aspect the under surfaces of seven consecutive dorsal vertebræ. These centrums are more slender and elongated than in any South African fossil previously known. They decrease in length from front to back. The first (which may be the first dorsal) is fully 1·25 centim. long, while the seventh is 0·75 centim. long, and is probably the last dorsal or lumbar vertebra, since the pubis is found immediately behind it. These vertebræ in form and number suggest the Chelonian type. They are of an elongated hour-glass form, and relatively longer than in Teleosaurs. The centrum appears to be hollow, but this condition is probably the effect of deep penetration of the conical notochordal substance, as in Mesosaurus , and the vertebræ referred by Sir R. Owen to Tapinocephalus . A conical cavity penetrates the posterior end of the sixth centrum, and apparently the anterior end of the first, so that the constriction in the middle length of the centrum is due to the tapering away of these conical cups. The articular faces are not exposed, but are inferred to be approximately circular, and the under surface of the centrum is rounded from side to side. In the seventh vertebra a slight lateral widening is seen in
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