Art. XLIV.—Notes on a Collection of Saurian Remainsfrom the Waipara River, Canterbury, in the possession of J. H. Cockburn Hood, Esq.

Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Volume 2, 1869, Page 186

Art. XLIV.—Notes on a Collection of Saurian Remainsfrom the Waipara River, Canterbury, in the possession of J. H. Cockburn Hood, Esq. By Julius Haast, Ph. D., F. R. S. [Read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, June 2, 1869.] Through the courtesy of Mr. J. Hood, I have been allowed to inspect, and study, the numerous Saurian remains obtained by him in the Waipara, and now on their way to Europe; and our member, my friend, Mr. T. D. Triphook, at my request, has kindly made a drawing, in natural size, of the principal pieces in that collection, which includes the greater part of a large Saurian head, a truly unique specimen. I also made drawings, and took measurements, of all the more important specimens, so that in case the collection should not reach its destination, the information at least, will not be altogether lost to the scientific world. These remains are generally inclosed in large concretions of arenaceous limestone, having the appearance of boulders. Some of these are nearly perfect spheres; they are very hard, and split generally only with great difficulty, and quite in a different direction from what one would expect. The collection made by Mr. Hood in the Waipara and its tributaries contains bones of all parts of the skeleton, belonging not only to many different specimens, but also to many species, or even genera and orders. The principal specimen in Mr. Hood's collection, referred to above, consisted of the portions of a large block which had been split in two. On the one side, the upper jaw and portions of the skull are preserved; on the other, portion of the lower jaw, of which a fragment is exposed on the larger slab. Judging from the size of these remarkable remains, the skull of the animal, to which they belonged, must have been 3 to 3 ¼ feet long, and, consequently, part of an animal which had a total length of 18 to 20 feet. The teeth, of an oblong form, are from ¾ to 1 ½ inches long, the dentine being intensely black, and marked by numerous fine longitudinal grooves. Professor Owen's description (p. 301) of the dentition of the Crocodilians, is as follows:—“The teeth of both the existing and extinct Crocodilian reptiles

consist of a body of compact dentine, forming a crown covered by a coat of enamel, and a root invested by a moderately-thick layer of cement. One root slightly enlarges, or maintains the same breadth to its base, which is deeply excavated by a conical pulp cavity, extending into the crown, and is commonly either perforated or notched at its concave or inner side.” You will observe that the same characteristic features occur also in the teeth of the skull under review:— The crown covered with dentine, ceases about a quarter of an inch from the jaws, the lower part of the cement forming a well defined line running parallel with the jaw bone. Mr. Triphook has given to the root of the teeth a darker tint, in his drawing, than exists in the original, where it has almost the same colour as the stone in which it is embedded. Only a slight rise on the surface of the stone indicates where the more perishable lower parts of the teeth were situated. It is scarcely necessary for me to observe that I am labouring under great difficulties, in having no library of scientific books at my command to refer to, so as to be able to ascertain if similar Saurian remains have been discovered anywhere else, and I may add, that, generally, books of that nature are too costly for individuals to purchase. However, from the data at my command, I may state that the skull under review belongs to an animal of the sub-order Crocodilia, called Amphicoelia by Professor Owen, and which includes, among others, the genera Teleosaurus and Mystriosaurus. This sub-order is called Amphicoelia (capped on both ends) from the peculiar character of the vertebræ, the vertebral body being concave on both sides; they, therefore, differ greatly from the existing Crocodilians, which have a much more perfect arrangement of the vertebral column, and of which I shall speak in the sequel. The Amphicœlia, in respect to the vertebral body, have therefore a more fish-like character than the existing crocodiles. The same eminent comparative anatomist states, that the vertebral surfaces of these Crocodilians were slightly concave, in order to enable them to make greater progress through the water; and that the hind limbs were therefore relatively stronger than the fore limbs. From the nature of the deposits in which the remains of the Amphicoelia are found, we must conclude that they were marine animals. The numerous vertebræ in the collection of Mr. Hood are,—with the exception of one, of which I shall afterwards speak,—all slightly bi-concave, and therefore agree with the Teleosaurian character. Amongst them are fourteen larger ones, still connected, which, in the average, are 2 ¼ inches long, by 4 inches high; over them, and in a reversed position, lie five caudal vertebræ, very long and slender; also a great many other bi-concave vertebræ were found, which are very remarkable, as being nearly twice as broad as high, some of them are 3 inches broad, and 1 ¾ inches high. As far as I know from all the Saurians which have been described, only Plesiosaurus, and Pliosaurus in a minor degree, have this characteristic feature. Mr. Hood, some ten years ago, took, from the same locality, a collection of Saurian bones to England, which were described by Professor Owen as Plesiosaurus australis.* The specimens referred to “consisted of two vertebral bodies or centrums, ribs, and portions of the two coracoids of the same individual, all in the usual petrified condition of Oolitic fossils. Their matrix was a bluish-grey clay-stone, effervescing with acid; the largest mass contained impressions of parts of the arch and of the transverse processes of nine dorsal vertebræ, and of ten ribs of the right side. Portions of five of the right diapophyses and of six of the ribs remained in this matrix. The bones had a ferruginous tint, contrasting with the matrix, as is commonly the case with specimens imbedded in the Oxfordian or Liassic clays.” “The shape and mode of articulation of the cervical and dorsal ribs, the shape and proportions of the coracoids concur with the more decisive evidence of the vertebræ in attesting the Plesiosauroid character of these New Zealand fossils, and, pending the discovery of the teeth, the author provisionally referred them to a species for which he proposed the name of Plesiosaurus australis, The specimens had been presented by Mr. Hood to the British Museum.” Owen. “Report of British Association,” Manchester, 1861. Transactions, p. p. 122–3.—ED. Unfortunately, I have never had an opportunity of

seeing his description, so that I do not know how far it agrees with the bones in the present collection. One of the characteristic features of the vertebral body of Plesiosaurus, is, according to the best Palæontological authorities, that it is either slightly concave, or almost flat, with the middle of such cavity slightly convex. Amongst the numerous vertebræ collected this autumn by Mr. Hood, none could be identified by me which possessed these peculiar characteristics on their terminal articular surfaces. We possess, however, in our own collection, and now lying before you, one dorsal vertebra which answers the above description. As before observed, the Amphicoelia had well-developed limbs, and I was therefore anxious to find bones belonging to the species of which the skull had been discovered. There were several good-sized bones which answer perfectly the description given by various authors, and I was therefore enabled to identify all the principal bones, such as the femur, tibia, and fibula, of the hind limbs, as well as humerus, ulna, and radius, of the fore limbs; some toe phalanges were also amongst them, of which the largest is 1 ½ inches broad, by 2 ½ inches long, and which, consequently, must have belonged to a large animal. I have just observed that no vertebræ of Plesiosaurus have apparently been found by Mr. Hood; as you are aware, a true Enaliosaurian, or Sea-lizard, possesses four fins, or paddles, instead of four, more or less developed legs. The principal bones of the hind and fore limbs of these Enaliosaurians were, the humerus and femur, both of which had a convex head, sub-cylindrical at its proximal end, and gradually becoming flattened and expanded at its distal end. Several fine specimens, some of them 10 inches long, 3 ½ inches in diameter at their proximal or upper end, and 6 ¼ inches at their lower or distal end, are in Mr. Hood's collection, also several other bones of the lower portions of the four extremities; the metacarpal phalange bones are well represented. However, I must here add, that some of these bones might have belonged to an Ichthyosaurus, or the huge Enaliosaurus, which resembled, more than any other, a whale or fish. There are also several fine specimens of the sternal and pelvic apparatus, and ribs; amongst them, I show you here a portion of a humerus of, probably, Plesiosaurus, found some time ago by Mr. E. Sealey, and presented by him to the Museum. Also the lower or distal end of a femur, from the same locality. I also offer to your inspection, portion of a metacarpal, and some phalangeal bones, of which the paddle of Plesiosaurus was composed. Consequently, it seems, that in the beds, under review, Saurians of different ages, and belonging to different genera and orders, existed in our seas, in times gone by, and in what may be considered of at least cretaceous age, although I say so with some diffidence, and wish to observe that a great deal more work has to be done before the question of the age of our middle and younger sedimentary rocks can be determined. Here are the different geological sections of the Waipara beds, on them, you will observe, that the beds in which those Saurians are found, underlie, uncomformably, the

so-called Weka Pass beds. When, some years ago (in 1864), I paid a flying visit to the Waipara, I concluded, from a hurried examination, that the beds, under review, were lying between the Weka Pass beds and the Red crag beds, which form the Deans, but Dr Hector, who visited the locality some time afterwards, pointed out to me, that according to his views, the beds in question, were underlying unconformably. Since then, I have examined, carefully, this and some other localities, in which similar formations occur, and have found that Dr. Hector's views are correct, and that to him, therefore, belongs the credit of having first pointed out the true position of these beds, a fact which is of the highest importance in New Zealand geology.* See “Geological Report,” 1868–9, p. xi.—ED. The large Ostrea beds are thus very important as showing us the exact position of the upper and lower beds. To show only one instance of the importance of this fact, I may point out that the quartzose trachytes of the Malvern Hills, which, hitherto, we considered to be old tertiary, must now be classified as of secondary age, and the name quartzose porphyries will be more appropriate to them. The importance of the subject under review is, I trust, sufficient excuse for my transgression. In the small seams of brown coal and shale, which occur in the same region, has been found the only vertebra of a procoelian character. The term procoelian (hollow in front) has been selected by Professor Owen for vertebræ, of which the front surface is concave, and the hind one convex. The centre of the vertebra, in question, is 3 inches high, and 3 ½ inches broad, of course without reckoning the neural arch and the pleurapophyses, and consequently belongs to a nanimal of considerable age, having, doubtless, the same habits as the crocodiles of the present day. There was also, what I consider to be, the distal or lower portion of the femur, which, judging from the articulation, evidently had some affinities with terrestrial remains, such as the Iguanodon a herbivorous terrestrial reptile, of enormous size, and living in the Northern Hemisphere, in the wealden and greensand (cretaceous) period. The procoelian remains were first found in the Northern Hemisphere, both in America and Europe, in Eocene tertiary strata, and principally in fresh-water beds; and I may here add that the procoelian vertebræ of the Waipara have also been discovered in lignite beds, which are either of fresh-water or littoral origin. I am well aware that these notes are very imperfect, owing to the short time allowed to me to study the interesting remains under review, and as I had not the necessary works for comparison and reference, I have, therefore, to crave your indulgence. I may, finally, be allowed to express my sincere regret, that such a valuable collection has left the Province and New Zealand; however, the fact that they will come, doubtless, into the hands of Professor Owen, is some slight satisfaction to me, because we can, with certainty, expect that that illustrious comparative anatomist, will afford us a classical description of them, which will form the basis of reference and work for all future New Zealand Palæontologists.