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Show 572 MR. R. LYDEKKER ON REMAINS [Nov. 19, 3. O n Associated Remains of a Theriodont Reptile from the Karoo System of the Cape. By R. L Y D E K K E R , B.A., F.G.S., F.Z.S. [Eeceived September 19, 1889.] (Plates LIV. & LV.) The remains of Anomodont Reptiles from the great Karoo system of the Cape Colony are so rarely found in associated sets that every instance of such association is of especial interest and importance, and I accordingly bring to the notice of the Society a series of associated, although imperfect, bones, presented in 1884 to the British Museum by Mr. C. S. Orpen, of Smithfield in the Orange Free State. These specimens (Brit. Mus. No. R. 533) were obtained from the Karoo system of the Rouxville District, Orange Free State, and probably from the Beaufort stage, although I cannot be certain on the latter point. The bones retain portions of a brick-red ferruginous matrix, which is frequently very closely adherent to them, and with the colour of which they are much impregnated. This matrix so closely resembles that in which the reptilian bones are found in the Maleri stage of the Gondwana system of Central India, that if the specimens had been shown to m e without any clue to their locality I should have said that they were probably of Indian origin. The majority of the fossils in the British Museum from the Beaufort beds are of a blackish or brownish-grey colour ; but according to Prof. A. H. Green red beds are of common occurrence on this horizon. The fossils in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons from the overlying Stormberg beds, catalogued by Sir R. Owen under the name of Massospondylus, exhibit a similar red matrix. The series of specimens comprises a number of more or less imperfect vertebrse from the dorsal and caudal regions, and several imperfect bones of the limbs and limb-girdles. Unfortunately, however, there is no trace of a tooth or any portions of the skull,- a circumstance which is the more to be regretted, since the South- African representatives of the Theriodont suborder of the Anomodonts (to which suborder these specimens belong) have been mainly founded upon the evidence of the skulls and teeth. The specimens I select for description are certain of the vertebrae and an imperfect scapula and humerus. Of the vertebrse two somewhat imperfect dorsals, cemented together by matrix, are represented from the right side in Plate LIV. fig. 1, on a scale of two thirds the natural size. These specimens, although somewhat flattened by pressure, exhibit the entire contour of the centrum and neural spine, and also show the peculiar characters of the transverse processes and tbe position of the zygapophyses. The two latter features are, however, exhibited still more clearly by the imperfect arch of a dorsal represented in fig. 2 of the same Plate. The centra of the dorsal vertebrse are of considerable length, and |
