Editorial Notes.

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During the past summer the University Geological Expedition in western Kansas was very fortunate in securing a most extraordinarily good specimen of a Platecarpus, which adds, unexpectedly, some new facts in their structure. The specimen was discovered by Mr. A. Stewart a mile and a half from Elkader on the Smoky Hill River, and includes the complete animal to the base of the tail. The skin was preserved entire, but, when exposed to the air, very much of it has flaked off. By the use of shellac, however, considerable patches have been preserved. The scales are similar to these of Tylosaurus, but are somewhat larger, and apparently lack a prominent carina. A remarkable peculiarity is the presence of a row of dermal processes along the nucha, from the skull at least as far back as the thoracic region. How much further they may go it is impossible to say, since the bones lie above the posterior end of them. They are about three millimeters in diameter and four or five, perhaps six, inches in length, forming a thick fringe or mane; and resembling very much the thongs along the legs of buckskin trowsers. The sternal apparatus is preserved entire and apparently, like most of the bones, nearly in position. There is a true, bony sternum, of crescentic shape, with a projecting, flattened, spatulate episternum. The paddle shows the outline of the membrane which joins the body broadly, and has the fifth finger divaricated. There are five carpal bones. Photographic figures of the nuchal fringe, the sternal apparatus and the skin, together with some observations on the food-habits of the animal will be given in the next number of this Quarterly.                                 

S. W. Williston.

(235) KAN. UNIV. QUAR., VOL. VII. No. 4, OCT. 1898, SERIES A

[This specimen (KUVP-1001) is currently on exhibit in the Museum of Natural History at the University of Kansas, in Lawrence, KS.]