The armour of the extinct reptiles of the genus Pareiasaurus / by H.G. Seeley.

  • Seeley, H. G. (Harry Govier), 1839-1909.
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The armour of the extinct reptiles of the genus Pareiasaurus / by H.G. Seeley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    [From the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 1908.] [Published CK-tober 1908.] The Armour of the Extinct Reptiles of the Genus Pareiasaurus. By H. G. Seeley, F.R.S., F.Z.S., King’s College, London. (Text-figures 125-129.) In “ Further Observations on Pareiasa/urus Phil. Trans. B. Royal Society, 1892,1 gave a short account of the dermal armour, pp. 345-6. It is limited to the dorsal region, and is figured in plate 17, and indicated by the letters ds in the description of the plate, p. 368. The scutes are only known in this example of Pareiasaurus baim, extracted from the rock by myself. They were originally covered with matrix. Their existence was not suspected, and it is possible that the more anterior scutes may have been partly lost in removing the intractable rock; and those seen in the British Museum specimen were preserved by great skill in chiselling. The ossifications are flat and inconspicuous, except where the lateral plates overhang the neural spines. In the small figure of the skeleton given in the ‘ Story of the Earth,’ 1895, text-fig. 18, p. 126, the scutes were made more evident by dark outlines. Each scute is about 2 inches wide by 1| inch long. There is a median row extending down the back, which as preserved now rests upon the summits of the neural spines of the dorsal vertebrae and the interspaces between them. There are also two lateral rows, one of which flanks each side of the median row. These are arranged symmetrically in pairs, and extend transversely outward from their contact with the median row, but alternate with them by being placed at the junction between each two median scutes. The lateral seut.es in Pareiasaurus baini are not flat but convexly curved as they extend outward, giving some support to the idea that this armour formed an elevated ridge on the back. In the present condition of the specimen this armour is only seen on seven consecutive later dorsal vertebrae and one or two earlier dorsals ; and there is no evidence that it was present over more than twelve vertebrae. [1]