The Coal Measures Amphibia of North AmericaMoodie, Roy Lee
Science
The Coal Measures Amphibia of North America
Moodie, Roy Lee
Amphibians, Fossil -- North America; Paleontology -- Carboniferous; Paleontology -- North America
The skull of the present species is fully described by Jaekel. The
type specimen does not offer any evidence in support of Jaekel's
"perisquamosal," but rather tends to the idea that he is incorrect in his
assumption of the fusion of these elements of the skull. The direction
taken by the ridges and grooves on the elements preserved indicate a
separation between the supratemporal and the squamosal. I do not find
that the grooves have the tendency to arise from a common center of
ossification in the squamosal, as suggested in the figures of Jaekel.
The horn which projects backward from the squamosal is rather large and
heavy for the size of the skull, and after curving slightly inward ends
in a blunt point and not sharply, as Jaekel figures in his specimens. The
vertebral column is indistinctly preserved and I have nothing to add to
Jaekel's account given above.
In the structure of the pectoral girdle my results are greatly at variance
with those of Jaekel. I do not find the remarkable elements which Jaekel
has figured (347) in his specimens. On the other hand, I find a normal
microsaurian pectoral arch (464), such as has been described for numerous
other forms. There are present, distinctly preserved in the type specimen,
the scapulæ, the clavicles, and the interclavicle, with the possibility
of the coracoid. The peculiar element referred to by Cope as resembling a
"lacertilian pubis" is without doubt the left scapula of the animal (plate
16, fig. 1). Its form compares very favorably with that of _Ceraterpeton_
as figured by Woodward (630). The coracoid may be represented by the
fragment which lies close to the scapula. The sculptured element lying
next to the supratemporal horn of the skull is the right clavicle
preserved bottom side up. Of the other two sculptured elements, one is the
interclavicle, only a portion of which is preserved. The left clavicle
lies beside it. The clavicles in this species have a tendency to assume
the triangular shape so common in other species of Microsauria, and the
interclavicle, so far as can be determined, was shield-shaped. The upper
surfaces of the pectoral elements are marked by grooves for the attachment
of the pectoral muscles.
[Illustration: Fig. 24.
A. Skull of _Diceratosaurus lævis_ Moodie, from the Linton Coal
Measures. × 1. _f_, frontal; _j_, jugal; _mx_, maxilla; _n_,
nasal; _or_, orbit; _par_, parietal; _pof_, postfrontal; _po_,
postorbital; _pf_, prefrontal; _pp_, postparietal; _sq_,
squamosal; _spt_, supratemporal; _qj_, quadratojugal; _pmx_,
premaxilla; _tab_, tabulare.
B. Reconstruction of skull outlines of _Diceratosaurus robustus_
Moodie, from the Coal Measures of Ohio. × 0.75. _fr_, frontal;
_f_, jugal; _or_, orbit; _par_, parietal; _pof_, postfrontal;
_po_, postorbital; _pp_, postparietal; _qj_, quadratojugal;
_spt_, supratemporal; _tab_, tabulare.
]
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