On some Amphibian and Reptilian Remains from South Africa and Australia

Abstract

At the Evening Meeting of this Society held on the 17th of November 1858, a paper by Mr. Stow “On some Fossils from South Africa” was read. In the course of the discussion which followed, my opinion as to the nature of one of those fossils was asked. With so much reserve as was due to the cursory character of my examination of the remains, I expressed my conviction that the organism in question was the skull of a Labyrinthodont Amphibian, and briefly stated the grounds upon which I based that conclusion. The Chairman of the Meeting then called upon me to undertake a thorough investigation of the matter; and I now report the results of my inquiries in the first of the following papers, in which I have embodied, incidentally, the description of an allied Australian Amphibian.