THE MICROSAURIAN FAMILY MOLGOPHIDÆ, FROM THE COAL MEASURES OF OHIO AND MAZON CREEK, ILLINOIS.
Family MOLGOPHIDÆ Cope, 1875.
Cope, Geol. Surv. Ohio, II, pt. II, p. 157, 1875.
Cope, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 1, p. II, 1875.
Type of family: Molgophis.
Body long, serpentine, a few species apparently limbless, ribless, and with abdominal armature lacking. Vertebræ elongate, neural and hæmal spines short or absent. Ribs long, heavy, and broad. The vertebræ seem to bear the characteristic marks of the family. One species has the skeleton reduced to a lanceolate skull and a string of about 50 slender vertebræ, all the rest of the skeleton being absent. The family is very poorly known, but was apparently of wide distribution in North America and confined to this continent. The representatives of the group are known from Iowa, Illinois, and Ohio.
Four genera are assigned to the family, but future discoveries will undoubtedly demand revision of the present classification. The genera are Molgophis, Pleuroptyx, Phlegethontia, and Erpetobrachium. The distinguishing characters of these genera are apparent from the descriptions of the various forms. The skeletons of the species are too incompletely known to allow the establishment of a tabular key to the genera.
Cope, Proc. Phila. Acad. Nat. Sci., p. 220, 1868.
Cope, Trans. Amer. Phil. Soc., XIV, p. 20, 1869.