. Geological magazine. ebrae. This circumstance drew my attention to numerous facts not yet Dr. Francis Baron Nopcsa—British Dinosaurs. 249 Tnentioned. Two such caudal spines measure each 21 cm., twoothers 19, and so on. Besides this the peculiar features of thetwo largest, the two next, and so on, is always similar, so thatarranging the spines according to the colour and size we get a seriesattaining the presumed length of the tail oi Polacantlius. This alonewould be enough to prove that the plate-like scutes were arrangedin pairs along the tail, but besides this and the comparison withScelid
. Geological magazine. ebrae. This circumstance drew my attention to numerous facts not yet Dr. Francis Baron Nopcsa—British Dinosaurs. 249 Tnentioned. Two such caudal spines measure each 21 cm., twoothers 19, and so on. Besides this the peculiar features of thetwo largest, the two next, and so on, is always similar, so thatarranging the spines according to the colour and size we get a seriesattaining the presumed length of the tail oi Polacantlius. This alonewould be enough to prove that the plate-like scutes were arrangedin pairs along the tail, but besides this and the comparison withScelidosaurus there is yet another point to prove it. By carefully uniting some fragments I managed to bring twoplates of equal size still united with matrix in close contactwith an underlying vertebra, and this piece, as well as thennsymmetrical character of two uncrushed pieces (which prove to bethe before-mentioned last pair of scutes), shows that the roof-likeplates could not have been arranged in any other manner than. Fig. 7.—Anterior dorsal derraal spine of PolacantJms, interior (median) yiew. indicated in the reconstruction. Thus the whole top of the tail ofFolacantlius was covered with two rows of diverging, broad, sharp-edged plates, while the button-like ossicles were distributed betweenthem so as to cover the empty spaces. In consequence of their great antero-posterior length each of themain scutes was not fixed merely on one but on two or three caudalvertebrEe, thus restricting, together with the ossified tendons, themovement of the powerful tail. Having finished with the tail and its armour, the question whereto place the dermal spines (Fig. 7) of Polacanthns became quiteeasy. They could neither belong to the tail nor to the lumbosacralregion. They come, therefore, evidently from the anterior partof the body. They are asymmetrical; according to their size theycan be arranged in pairs, and the rows thus formed attain a length-of 150 cm. Kibs and free dorsal vertebree
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