Cope, Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc., 1885, p. 405.
Moodie, Science, n.s., XLI, No. 1056, p. 463, 1915.
Type: Specimen No. 2560, Newberry Collection, American Museum of Natural History.
Horizon and locality: Discovered by Samuel Huston at the Linton, Ohio, Coal Mines. (Plate [21, figs. 3, 4]; [24, figs. 2, 3].)
The scales ([plate 24, fig. 2]) in their present condition are entirely smooth. At a distance of 20 mm. from the base of the tail they are in 20 longitudinal series. At that point the transverse diameter of the body is 140 mm. The outline contracts rather abruptly to the tail, of which 66 mm. are preserved. The surface of the tail is obscured by a thin layer of carbonaceous matter not sufficiently thick to obscure scales, which are evident at distances of 16 mm., 43 mm., and 52 mm. from the tip. The scales on the tail are smaller than those on the body and are without markings of any kind. The anterior half of the body is depressed and distorted, but the remainder is well preserved and shows a fairly good outline of an apparently limbless body.
An additional specimen (No. 8683 G, of the Newberry Collection, American Museum of Natural History) reveals no new facts as to structure, but serves to show that the body of the animal was long and slender ([plate 21, fig. 4]). The portion studied comes undoubtedly from the middle of the body. No limb elements are preserved. The scales are somewhat larger, especially toward the sides of the body, than in the type. The fragment measures 70 mm. in length by 18 mm. and 26 mm. in width. One of the largest scales measures 1 mm. in diameter.
| Measurements of the Type. | |
| mm. | |
| Length of entire remains | 180 |
| Greatest width | 22 |
| Greatest width of undisturbed portion | 15 |
| Length of an individual scale | .75 |