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Show 212 DR. R. BROOM ON THE [Mar. 21, a half inches from the burr there is a second slight knee-bend. These features appear to represent the brow and middle tyne in a normal antler, and consequently this example corresponds in form to the third antler of the Red Deer in which the tynes have been suppressed. From the dimensions and appearance of the Portland specimen it may be regarded as being of the same individual age as that from Moorfields, while the example from Ilford is more probably the second antler with the brow-tyne suppressed. In these abnormal forms there has been but little increase of weight or leverage upon the pedicle, and this has consequently found its earliest tendency to grow straightly upwards as an elongated slender cylinder but little retarded. The difference noted between the examples from Moorfields and Portland as regards direction is such as one would expect to occur if the physiological explanation suggested be the true one. It is probable that these specimens belonged to individuals which had suffered injury to the testes at an early period of life, which resulted in making the retention of youthful characters possible for a longer period than is usually the case*. This view appears to be supported, firstly, by the fact that the animals died at a comparatively early age, their decease probably being due to their physical inferiority ; secondly, by the rarity of the type, for from what we know of the ease with which much slighter variations in antlers are transmitted by heredity t, we should expect, had the possessors of such antlers had the power of propagating their species, to find their representatives in some numbers ; and, lastly, by the fact that the rugose surface of the antler in the Moorfields specimen is greatly eroded and that in all the specimens there is no regular burr, which seems to indicate that these antlers were not shed annually as in sexually perfect stags. In conclusion, I would express my best thanks to Dr. C. W. Andrews, F.G.S., Mr. E. T. Newton, F.R.S., Prof. C. Stewart, F.R.S., Mr. R. H. Burne, F.Z.S., and Dr. Frank Corner, F.G.S., for the valuable assistance which they have given me. 4. On the Affinities of the Primitive Reptile Procoloplwn. B y R. Broom, M .D., B.Sc., C.M.Z.S., Victoria College, Stellenbosch, Cape Colony. [Received January 23,1905 .] The affinities of few fossil reptiles have given rise to more dispute than those of Procoloi)hon. When first described by Owen (1 ) in 1876 it was placed in the Order Theriodontia. In 1878 Seeley (2), as the result of the examination of some fresh material, regarded it as a " fossil Rhynchocephalian." In 1888 he (3) made it the type of a new suborder of the Anomodontia * Prof. G. Rolleston, ‘ Scientific Papers and Addresses,' vol. ii. p. 699. t Sir Victor Brooke, P. Z. S. 1878, p. 892. |
