Type: Tuditanus punctulatus Cope.
The genus as here defined is a somewhat composite group and it is quite probable that some of the species here included will have to be removed to another genus when the anatomy of the forms is better known. The species of the genus are all moderately small, the largest barely attaining a length of 8 inches.
There are 5 species of Tuditanus thus far known. All of the species are characterized by the possession of a peculiar triangular-shaped clavicle with radiating grooves, and this has been taken as one of the distinctive characters of the genus, as well as of the family. The structure of the cranium where known is quite uniform among the different species. The squamosal is quite large and the supratemporal is not always closely joined to the parietal. The species are:
Tuditanus punctulatus Cope, Linton, Ohio.
brevirostris Cope, Linton, Ohio.
longipes Cope, Linton, Ohio.
minimus Moodie, Cannelton, Pennsylvania.
walcotti Moodie, Linton, Ohio.
Tuditanus punctulatus Cope.
Cope, Trans. Amer. Phil. Soc., XV, p. 271, 1874.
Cope, Geol. Surv. Ohio, II, pt. II, p. 392, pl. xxxiv, fig. I, 1875.
Type: Specimen No. 110, American Museum of Natural History, where there is also specimen No. 111.
Horizon and locality: Linton, Ohio, Coal Measures.
This species, together with the form, T. brevirostris, described on p. 88, was used by Cope as the type of the genus Tuditanus. Cope subsequently associated some reptilian remains from the Linton mines with the type of T. punctulatus and changed the generic term to Isodectes, which was known by another species, I. megalops Cope, from the Permian of Texas. The remains associated by Cope with I. megalops undoubtedly represent a reptilian species and which has been described elsewhere under the name Eosauravus copei Williston. The species is of exceeding interest because it is the oldest known reptile and places the range of the Reptilia down towards the base of the Pennsylvanian.