The Family Trematopsidae

The family Trematopsidae is expanded to include the genus Acheloma as well as Trematops. The former occurs in the Wichita and Putnam formations of Texas, while the latter is found in the Clear Fork formation. The revised and amended descriptions point out the many similarities between the two genera. Two new species of Acheloma are erected on the basis of new material. There is a rather wide variation of many characters within the species of these two genera, but certain constant features of the skull and postcranial skeleton separate them clearly. The family is more closely related to the family Dissorophidae than to any other known from the Texas red beds. The members of the genus Trematops were very active, terrestrial carnivores, while those of the genus Acheloma, also carnivores, seem to have spent much of their life in and close to water.