On Reptilian Remains from the Karroo Beds of East Africa

Abstract
The fossil remains described and discussed in this paper were taken from about the middle of the Karroo Beds near Tanga, on the coast of the Tanganyika Territory, by Mr. F. P. Mennell, F.G.S., who was good enough to forward the specimens to me for examination. They consist of portions of three animals, of which one is too weathered and too fragmentary for investigation. The other two are preserved on slabs of hard, blackish, somewhat micaceous shale; the more complete animal is smaller than the other, but, as will be seen in the sequel, in other respects they are sufficiently similar to be considered representatives of the same species. It is not necessary to dwell on the importance of Mr. Mennell's discovery. From extra-South African areas very few of its animals have been found within the ancient boundaries of Gondwanaland: that some of them were spread outside its confines is well-known; but hitherto there has been a big geographical gap between the South African localities yielding a (Gondwana fauna and those of Europe. This discovery marks the first step in the bridging of that gap; and I am extremely grateful to Mr. Mennell for giving me the opportunity of placing it on record. Of the described specimens, the smaller and better is placed in the Rhodesian Museum, Bulawayo; the other is in the collection of the South African Museum at Cape Town. As preserved, the specimen has a length of about 380 mm. There are missing, however, the whole of

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: