A New Permian Rhynchocephalian Repiile ¹

Abstract

AMONG the many publications which have recently startled the palyeontological world, one of the most important is unquestionably Dr. Hermann Credner's description of Palæohatteria, a new Permian Rhynchocephaltanfrom the Plauen beds near Dresden—beds which have supplied the same author with copious material of Stegocephalians, both in the perfect and larval stages, the subject of his well-known admirable monographs. Great interest attaches to the present discovery from a purely zoological point of view, owing to the close relationship of this, one of the earliest of Reptiles, to the existing New Zealand Sphenodon (or Hatteria), the anatomy of which was first made known some twenty years ago by Dr. Günther in his classical paper in the Philosophical Transactions (vol. clvii., 1867). Since that time Sphenodon (of which very few specimens were then known, and which was even supposed to be nearly extinct) has been found in abundance on various small islands in the Bay of Plenty, and has come into the hands of many anatomists, to the great benefit of reptilian morphology. An investigation of the development of this type is, unfortunately, still a desideratum, which, when supplied, cannot fail to throw great light upon the phylogeny of the Reptilia.