648 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



consequent crater-like elevation of the pineal foramen, which 

 is situated in the median line between and above them. As an 

 example of the skull and dentition of a more normal type of 

 these most mammal-like reptiles Dr. Broom's figure of the 

 skull of the new species Scymnognathus angusticeps is repro- 

 duced in fig. 5. Both genera are related to Gorgonops. Two 

 new species of Scymnognathus are described in this paper, and 

 a third is added in an article by Messrs. Broom and Haughton 

 in the Annals of the S. African Museum, vol. xii. pp. 26-35. 



In the same issue, pp. 8-12, Dr. Broom describes a skull 

 from Beaufort West as a new species of Gorgonopsis, a genus 

 originally proposed by the late Prof. H. G. Seeley for a reptile 

 allied to Gorgonops, and now revived by Dr. Broom, who seems, 

 however, to have omitted to confer a specific name on the new 

 form. 



In a subsequent paper {Proc. Zool. Soc. 1913, pp. 225-30) 

 Dr. Broom reviews the structure and affinities of the group 

 Gorgonopsia, which is taken to include Scymnognathus as well 

 as Gorgonops and Gorgonopsis. " Most of the characters," he 

 observes, " in which the Gorgonopsia differ from the Thero- 

 cephalia are characters in which they agree with the [typical] 

 Anomodontia. The Therocephalia are unquestionably the 

 more primitive group, but there are also some early characters 

 in the Gorgonopsia and also in the [typical] Anomodontia. Of 

 course we only know well one or two of the later gorgo- 

 nopsians, and we have good reason to believe that the group 

 is very early." 



The structure of the gorgonopsid palate forms an important 

 item in a paper by Mr. Watson {Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 8, 

 vol. xii. pp. 65-72) on certain features in the skulls of the 

 therocephalians ; the same author {op. cit. pp. 217-28) also con- 

 tributing an article on the skull, brain, nose, and internal ear 

 of Diademodon. The special interest attaching to the sense- 

 organs in this genus is that they appear to indicate the com- 

 mencement of a change from the lowly reptilian to the higher 

 mammalian type, and it is hence possible that Diademodon may 

 have been warm-blooded. 



The work of Dr. Broom has not been altogether restricted 

 to the early reptiles of South Africa, for he has contributed two 

 articles to vol. xxxii. of the Bidletin of the American Museum of 

 Natural History on some of those of North America. In the 



