Moodie, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., XXVI, p. 348, pl. lxii, fig. 1, 1909.
Type: Specimen No. 8600 G, American Museum of Natural History. Locality and horizon: Linton, Ohio, Coal Measures. ([Plate 25, fig. 1.]) Cope originally described this species from a portion of a skull. He ([123]) characterized the form as follows:
"The marked character of this form is seen in the very anterior position of the orbits and the contraction of the muzzle. The orbits are large and are separated by a little more than their own diameter; their posterior border is in front of a line measuring the anterior third of the length to the supraoccipital crest, and nearly to the line marking the fourth of the length to the quadrate region. The posterior outline of the skull is deeply concave, the quadrate angle projecting beyond the occipital condyles."
The base of the specimen is broken and there is no place for the occipital condyles. Unless the specimen has been mutilated since Cope studied it, the occipital condyles are not present.
The restoration of the skull given in [figure 22, B] varies but little from that given by Cope in 1875. The elements are practically as he represented them.
The premaxillæ are small and lie in the usual relations to the other elements. Minute conical teeth are present as impressions. They are quite similar to the teeth found in other Microsauria. The nasals are nearly square and form the inner boundary of the somewhat oval nostril, which is represented by a depression in the coal. The frontal is elongate. It is about twice as long as wide. It forms a portion of the inner border of the orbit, the remainder being made up by the prefrontals and the postfrontal. The parietals are the largest elements of the skull, but they do not greatly exceed the jugals. Together the parietals form a somewhat obtuse oval in the median region of the skull and they contain between them, in their posterior third, the small circular pineal foramen. The postparietal forms the posterior boundary of the skull. The pref rental forms the anterior border of the orbit and is triangular in shape. The lacrimal is not identified. The maxilla is an elongate element the boundaries of which are uncertain, though probably somewhat as given. The postfrontal and the postorbital form the posterior boundary of the orbit, inclosing between them the anterior projection of the squamosal. The squamosal is an elongate element and is acuminate at each end. The tabulare is a large element lying lateral to the postparietal. The jugal is a very elongate element, apparently acuminate anteriorly. The quadratojugal is small and elongate. The supratemporal is definitely bounded and its limits are as indicated ([fig. 22, B]), being a large element which forms the quadrate angle.
There are two other specimens of this species in the collections and a fragment of a fourth which it is difficult to make out. Cope identified and figured one of these as E. radiatus (Geol. Surv. Ohio, II, pt. II, pl. 34, fig. 3), but the identification is doubtful and the figure shows structures which I am unable to identify in the specimen. Nothing of importance is to be learned from the other two specimens, except that they show a diversity of size. They consist of incomplete skulls, concerning which Cope ([123]) remarks:
"There are no mucous canals. The sculpture consists of strong ridges radiating and inosculating. Radiation is more uninterrupted on both jugal, supratemporal, and anterior part of the tabulare; on the first they originate in front of the middle exteriorly; on the supratemporal near the anterior part. The inosculation is honeycomb-like on the parietal, postfrontal, and posterior parts of the tabulare."
| Measurement of the Type Specimen. | |
| mm. | |
| Length of the skull along median line (estimated) | 60 |
| Length from muzzle to quadrate angle | 71 |
| Width at posterior border | 69 |
| Width at orbits | 40 |
| Length of orbit | 9 |
| Width of orbit | 8 |
| Interorbital width | 8 |
| Length of nostrils | 2 |
| Measurements of Another Specimen of the Species. | |
| (No. 8598 G, American Museum of Natural History.) | |
| mm. | |
| Median length of skull | 56 |
| Length to quadrate angle | 61 |
| Width at posterior border | 50 |
| Length of orbit | 7 |
| Width of orbit | 6 |
| Interorbital width | 4.5 |
The specimens of this species were collected by Dr. J. S. Newberry.