Telerpeton.

Telerpeton. a remarkable genus of fossil reptiles, the relics of which have been found in fine-grained whitish sandstone of Triassic age quarried at Cummingston, near Elgin. A single species, or rather a single specimen, is all that as yet has been detected. It exhibits the skeleton complete, with the exception of the termination of the tail, but the bones have disappeared, and left only the casts as dark-coloured cavities in the pale-gray rock. Nearly perfect casts of their forms were taken by Dr G. Mantell from these hollow casts. The impressions are so well defined as clearly to show that there were twenty-six vertebrae between the skull and the sacrum, two sacral vertebrae, and the portion of the tail preserved on the slab consists of thirteen others. The ribs, of which there are twenty-one pairs, are very slender; they are short near the head, but quickly lengthen as they leave it. The reptilian nature of this fossil is evident. By Dr Mantell it was considered to be a batrachian, and described as Telerpeton Elginense; but Professor Owen has more correctly referred it to the lacertine type, because of the numerous ribs, the structure of the sacrum, and the form of the pelvis.